Remember When 2: Ties That Bind
by Strix 4
Summary: When a relationship is formed out of friendship, there is inevitable fallout. But when a crisis prompts Tamaki to call on his friends, can they do enough damage control to be the family that he so desperately needs? Sequel to 'Remember When'.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: I'm baaaaaack! Whoo...outlining new stories is such a pain. But as promised, here is the first chapter of 'Remember When 2: Ties That Bind'! As the title suggests, this story is a continuation of another. If you haven't read that first, please do so, or else you'll be totally lost. Stick around at the end for some special notes on what to expect this time around; make sure you read them before you bombard me with questions. Thanks to all my very patient readers; you guys are the absolute best!_

_This story takes place about five months after the end of 'Remember When' (which puts it about a year and a half before the 'Remember When' epilogue).  
_

_Please note that I haven't read the manga, and so my storyline may be a bit different._

_I do not own Ouran High School Host Club; it belongs to Bisco Hatori. This story is for entertainment purposes only.  
_

**Unravel**

**TO: **CallMeKing

**FROM: **PocketNinja

**ON: **May 15th, 3:35 PM

TAMA-CHAN!

Thank you sosososososo much for the package! I never get to have sweets at the dojo. I only get one cake a night, and I have to wait until _after_ dinner to eat it. Takashi's so mean! Tell Haru-chan thank you too! Her homemade cake was my favorite…I ate it all up! But afterwards, I got all bouncy, and now Sensei has a funny face, like he's been sucking on a lemon or something. Someone should tell him that cake is much yummier than yucky sour fruit!

I know you're sad that I haven't seen you in a while. Sensei said that you called him and tried to convince him to let you guys visit (he had that funny face again…I told him he could have some of my cake if he needed something sweet, but he made a little choking sound, and then Takashi carried me away). I promise that after I graduate this dojo, I'll pick one that lets me have visitors! Or maybe I'll open one of my own…and I can paint it pink, like strawberries, and we'll have cake there everyday!

Oh, before I forget! I read your last email. No, I haven't heard from Kyo-chan in a while. But I'm sure he's super busy, getting his Doctor Degree!

Give Haru-chan a big hug from me, and from Usa-chan! I'll see you guys in June, for Hika-chan and Kao-chan's birthday, right? Can't wait!

Love!

Hunni

PS: Do you think Hika-chan and Kao-chan will let me pick the cake?

...

**TO:** CallMeKing

**FROM:** Mori

**ON:** May 15th, 3:45 PM

Tamaki,

Please stop sending Hunni sweets. Sensei is getting tired of scraping him off the ceiling.

See you in June.

Mori.

…...

**TO:** Mori

**FROM**: HonorStudent

**ON: **May 15th; 3:55 PM

Hi Mori-sempai,

This is Haruhi. I'm replying for Tamaki, since your email sent him straight into his corner. I'm sorry about the sweets; we won't send anymore. Hunni-sempai's emails just sounded so pitiful…you're not really depriving him of all things sweet and sugary, are you? Because, if I remember right, he got a little violent the last time you tried.

Say, you haven't heard from Kyoya-sempai, have you? Tamaki hasn't been able to get a hold of him, and neither have I. If you have heard from him, can you tell him to please give Tamaki a call? His sulking has gotten completely out of control.

See you in June!

Haruhi

…...

**FROM:** Hitaachin1

**TO: **HonorStudent

**ON:** May 31st; 7:09 PM

Haruhi,  
Hi. This is Hikaru. Sorry I haven't written in a while. I've been really busy here at school; Kaoru and I just got asked to supply the outfits for a campus wide fashion show. It's kept us hopping. But I did read your emails. It's great that you're actually staying in touch this time…it's always nice to hear from you!

I suppose I'll see you soon for my birthday. Can't wait! Tell the Boss I say 'Hello'.

Hikaru

….

**TO:** HonorStudent

**FROM:** Hitaachin1

**ON:** May 31st; 7:22 PM

Hi Kaoru.

Please stop sending me emails from your brother's account. It's always great to hear from you, but you don't have to feel responsible for your brother's reply. I know that he's angry at me. He'll write when he's ready.

Send me something from your own account next time.

Haruhi

…...

**TO: **OotoriK

**FROM:** CallMeKing

**ON:** June 1st; 8:32 AM

Mon Ami!

Do you realize that it has been two whole weeks since you've heard my voice? Why must you be so cruel to yourself? Depriving yourself of such beauty can only hurt you, my friend! Luckily, this situation is easily remedied. Simply pick up that delightful little cell phone that you carry with you everywhere, and dial my number. In fact, you don't even have to dial, since I am programmed into your phone as the very first speed dial.

Please call me, my friend. I miss talking to you.

A tout de suite!

Tamaki

…...

**TO:** Hitaachin2

**FROM**: PocketNinja

**ON:** June 2nd; 12:45 PM

Kao-chan,

Thanks so much for the present! It's a super cute little outfit. Are we dressing up for your birthday party? Can Usa-chan have a costume too? Takashi's letting me bring him, since it's a special occasion!

See you super soon!

Hunni

PS: Have you heard from Kyo-chan lately? Tama-chan called me the other day to ask if I had.

…...

**TO:** Hitaachin2

**FROM:** Mori

**ON:** June 2nd, 12;48 PM

Kaoru.

This costume. Are you serious?

Mori.

…...

**TO:** Hitaachin2

**FROM:** CallMeKing

**ON: **June 2nd; 1:28 PM

Kaoru,

What inspired outfits! I'm so very proud! And I am more than thrilled to wear mine for your special day. I can only assume that you and Hikaru were stimulated by my brilliance, both in the Host Club Days and now. You're so very welcome, for an inspiration such as me.

And don't worry. I'll talk her into it.

A bientot!

Tamaki

…...

**TO: **Hitaachin1

**FROM:** HonorStudent

**ON:** June 2nd; 2:12 PM

Kaoru,

We are friends. I am excited to see you, and to celebrate your birthday.

There's no way in hell I'm wearing the costume you sent me.

Haruhi

…...

**TO: **OotoriK

**FROM:** Hitaachin2

**ON: **June 2nd; 8:37 PM

Hi Kyoya-sempai,

I was just wondering if you got the package that Hikaru and I sent your way. Everyone else emailed once they got theirs. You are still planning on coming to our birthday party back home, right? I know I haven't heard from you in a few months, and you never responded to the invitation. But Haruhi told me what your workload is like, and I figured that you were too busy to reply, so I put you down on the guest list anyway.

On that note; I know you're busy, but you should probably give the Boss a call. He's driving everyone nuts asking if we've heard from you.

See you!

Kaoru

…...

**TO:** Hitaachin1

**FROM:** HonorStudent

**ON:** June 3rd; 11:18 AM

Hikaru,

It's been months, and I've barely heard from you. Please, I know you're angry with me, but I need you to talk to me. Kaoru told me that you've been taking on extra projects in your college courses, and that you've volunteered as a part time employee at your mother's fashion design company. He says that you've been working nonstop, and that your face is starting to look like mine did during Christmas break.

Don't do this.

Please, Hikaru. Don't do this because of me.

Talk to me. Let me help. You idiot, this mess is all my fault anyway. Let me try to fix it. I gave you time because I know that you needed it, but enough is enough. I'm not going to let you mope yourself to death over me.

Contact me somehow. I don't care which way.

Haruhi.

PS: If you give yourself an ulcer, Kaoru will kick your ass. And I'll let him.

…...

**TO:** Hitaachin1

**FROM:** Hitaachin2

**ON:** June 3rd, 3:36 PM

Hikaru,

You're an ass, and I'm still not talking to you. But obviously, your life would spiral into a barren wasteland of chaos and despair without my words of wisdom. So, I'll give them to you in an email, and then I still don't have to speak to you.

So there.

You've got to talk to her. It's been months, and we're all getting tired of watching you work yourself into the dirt. I realize that you don't have to feel when you're that tired, but you're starting to look so run down that people can actually tell us apart. We knew this was going to happen eventually. I understand your need to deal, but it's enough now.

Family first, remember? You promised me.

I know you're still mad at me for telling Haruhi about how bad you look. It's why I'm camped out in our old room downstairs, after all, sending you this message instead of telling you face to face. But I'm worried about you, you jerk. How are we supposed to die on the same day, like we promised, if you work yourself to death before I can catch up?

I miss you. Hikaru, it's time to come back now. Okay?

Kaoru

…...

**TO:** Hitaachin1

**FROM:** HonorStudent

**ON:** June 3rd; 5:00 PM

Hikaru,

Someone's called my cell phone six times in the past hour, and hung up before 'Hello' every time.

Just talk to me, moron. It'll be okay, I promise.

Haruhi.

…...

**TO:** HonorStudent

**FROM:** Hitaachin1

**ON: **June 3rd; 5:42 PM

Haruhi,

I'm not angry at you. Please stop worrying.

I'll see you soon.

Hikaru

…...

**TO:** OotoriK

**FROM:** CallMeKing

**ON:** June 4th; 2:38 AM

MOMMY!

DON'T IGNORE DADDY! IT IS IMPOLITE TO STOP SPEAKING TO YOUR SPOUSE! YOU HAVE THREE DAYS TO CONTACT ME, OR I WILL FLY MY WAY TO YOUR DORM ROOM AND APPLY MY SUPER STARLIGHT KICK STRAIGHT TO YOUR INSENSITIVE SKULL.

I'LL WAIT UNTIL YOU'RE SLEEPING, TOO.

COUNTDOWN STARTS NOW.

TAMAKI

…...

**TO:** OotoriK

**FROM:** HonorStudent

**ON**: June 5th; 4:58 PM

Kyoya-sempai,

What's wrong? Where are you? Why haven't you responded to anyone? Tamaki's frantic; his cell phone never leaves his hand anymore. He checks his email at least twenty times a day. He's driven up to see you seven times in the last four months. I'm sure you know that already; you're always conveniently absent when he gets there.

Listen, Tamaki may think everything is fine and dandy. He's oblivious, after all, to the grittier aspects of life. But I'm not, and I know why you're upset. It doesn't matter how many times you swore that you were fine with it; it wasn't true then, and it certainly isn't true now.

Please, Kyoya-sempai, don't let something like this break what you have. Don't make him choose. Come to Hikaru and Kaoru's party; he'll be so excited to see you.

Please call him.

Haruhi

…...

**TO: **Pocket Ninja, Mori, Hitaachin1, Hitaachin2

**FROM:** OotoriK

**ON:** June 7th; 7:23 PM

Please pack your things and travel to the nearest airport. I've chartered my family's jet to pick up all of you and then bring you to our location. You should be receiving an email from Haruhi in the next hour or so, explaining the situation.

Please get your things together quickly. There may not be much time.

Kyoya

…...

**TO:** PocketNinja, Mori, Hitaachin1, Hitaachin2, OotoriK

**FROM:** HonorStudent

**ON:** June 7th; 8:14 PM

You guys,

I'm sorry, this email won't be very long, because I don't have a lot of time. And I'm sorry that I can't be more specific, but the details I have are sketchy at best, and I don't have a very clear picture of the situation just yet. But Tamaki asked me to email all of you to let you know what I can.

It's his mother. Tamaki's mother is sick, very sick. I don't know how bad her condition is, but Tamaki and I are leaving on the next flight out. Tamaki…he told me to ask you. To ask all of you, to come, when you can.

Kyoya, I don't know if you're reading this, but if you are, please come. I know that you're angry, and you're not the only one. But Tamaki needs you. He needs his family. We have to put everything aside for right now, Kyoya, Hikaru.

You promised. We all did.

Please, hurry.

Haruhi

...

_A/N: How the tables have turned! Haruhi struggles to keep her family together_, _but why is Kyoya trying to break it in the first place? How will Hikaru react when it comes down seeing Haruhi, after avoiding communication for months? Tamaki needs his family now more than ever; but can they stay together long enough to support him? The story will return to regular formatting in the next chapter; no more emails. And more memories will be shared, although the setting will be vastly different. Stay tuned, and Happy Reading!_


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Blargh, I'm sorry for the wait you guys! Real life has been completely kicking my ass. Thanks for being so patient with me; I'm hoping that updates will come faster now that I've settled into a routine. Also, I apologize for the lack of review responses. With the little free time that I have, I figured that you guys would rather I work on updates. Please know that I read every word that you guys send to me, and that I cherish every one. Your feedback means a lot. And so, as always, I thank you guys for being such amazing reviewers/readers. You rock!_

_I do not own Ouran High School Host Club; it belongs to Bisco Hatori.  
_

**Twist It Tighter**

The air inside the lavish private plane was tight enough to pop ears, and not just because it was currently situated at thirty thousand feet. There were five people settled into the luxurious leather seats of the plane, but no one was communicating outside of the occasional sideways glance, and the weight of words unsaid was compressing the air inside the cabin uncomfortably.

Leave it to Kyoya freaking _Ootori _to hire himself out as a one man band of _awkward_.

It shouldn't have been so hard. They were family after all, and they'd survived a near-destruction in order to truly earn that title. They should have been able to storm the plane as soon as it touched down, and shove their list of questions into Kyoya's face. They'd certainly seen his graciously frigid façade before, and so it really shouldn't have given them more than a moment's pause. Everyone knew that Mommy had an icicle (with eyes, because everything about Kyoya _always watched_) lodged up his butt, and they loved him anyway.

But then, they'd never been on the receiving end of it before, and his complete lack of warmth choked their confused cries of- '_what'__**hell**_'

-into uncertain silence.

So they'd wilted instead, reduced to delicate flowers in the face of Kyoya's civil frost, and politely thanked Kyoya for picking them up, watching with disbelief as he elegantly ignored the question marks creasing their eyebrows.

Now they were sitting in silent pairs, Hikaru and Kaoru back by the door, Hunni and Mori towards the middle, and Kyoya with his black laptop, and one true love, up front and close to the cockpit. Kyoya was going out of his way to stay silent now, but upon their respective arrivals, he'd offered each of them refreshment, with manners both immaculate and cold. His Host Club manners. They'd recognized them right away, and found themselves strangely insulted by their presence, though most of them couldn't articulate why.

"They're fake," Kaoru explained, about four hours into the flight. "Not real. Kyoya-sempai never bothered to pretend with us before, but all of sudden he's treating us like outsiders."

Hikaru absorbed the words his brother had whispered against his ear, and recalled the way a soft, sweet, and somewhat empty Host Club smile had curled its way around Kyoya's lips as he'd offered him a beverage and his choice of seats. Tamaki's smile, Hikaru realized, and wondered if Kyoya had comprehended yet that he'd never be able to free himself completely.

Tension wasn't the only thing tightening the air inside the cabin. Tamaki and Haruhi hadn't answered any of their calls, and so worry was an ever-clenching fist, squeezing out the little air that was left. No one was talking about it, but their behavior dragged it out into the open better than their words ever could. Hunni refused to sit still; he rocked in his seat, stretched his legs, fidgeted and squirmed until a quiet word from Mori sapped the majority of his restlessness. Eventually, he slipped into an exhausted slumber, his cheek pressed against Mori's side. The worry wasn't as obvious in the more stoic boy. But the way his hands crushed the book he was reading, the way his eyes rested a good inch or two above the page, eventually indicated that his mind was indeed distracted. Kaoru opened his writing journal, only to sit with a blank page and vacant eyes, before eventually closing it again. And Hikaru gave up on listening to his music at all about thirty minutes in.

Eventually, they all fell asleep. Partially because it was a long flight, but mostly out of self-defense. Hikaru woke when the plane began to descend; he'd never been able to sleep through the landing process, but everyone else slumbered on. As the older twin yawned and shifted, carefully, so as not to wake Kaoru, who was snuggled up against his shoulder, he saw the faint glow of a computer screen, and almost rolled his eyes. Of course; even in crisis situations, Kyoya never slept.

"Sir." A uniformed man quietly opened the cockpit door and tiptoed to Kyoya's side. "We'll be landing soon. Your car is waiting for you at the airport's main gate."

"Very well," Kyoya murmured back. "What is our estimated time of arrival?"

"The driver said it should take about an hour and a half to reach the estate."

"An hour and a half?" Kyoya repeated, and both Hikaru and the uniformed man winced a little at the sudden displeasure in his voice.

"I'm sorry, sir," the man whispered, swallowing hard. "There is-The driver reported heavy traffic."

There was a long beat of silence, long enough for Hikaru to imagine the sweat rolling down the man's back, before Kyoya heaved a long-suffering sigh.

"I suppose it can't be helped," he said dismissively. "Thank you for alerting me."

It was just bright enough for Hikaru to make out the man's fumbling bow, and then he was gone, creeping back inside the cockpit, probably with great relief.

_Not as distant as we thought,_ Hikaru mused, recalling the snapping impatience he'd just barely heard in the older boy's voice. _But then why are you pretending not to care, Kyoya-sempai?_

The others jerked awake in varying stages as the plane wheels whacked the ground. Mori woke up like he'd never been sleeping at all, blinking eyes that were bright and perfectly aware. Hunni snuggled stubbornly against his side, and gave a rather worrisome snarl when the bigger boy tried to nudge him awake. Kaoru let out a garbled string of vowel sounds against Hikaru's shoulder, and then hauled himself into a sitting position, blinking sleep from his golden eyes.

"I hope the flight was enjoyable," Kyoya offered, with perfect, polite indifference as they all staggered to their feet. "There's a car waiting for us at the main gate. It will take us to Tamaki, and his mother."

All lingering traces of sleep banished itself from the boys at the reminder of their real mission. The un-boarded the plane, and made quick work of scaling through the swarming airport. They'd been born into the world of travel, and so they barely blinked at the sudden shift from Japanese to the long and liquid language of the French. The piled into the sleek car with Kyoya's family crest waving from the antenna, and waited impatiently for the driver to finish loading their luggage, tapping finger and toes and shifting in their seats.

The atmosphere inside the car was just as awkward as the plane, possibly even more so, because of the sudden space reduction. Everyone turned avoiding each other's eyes into some kind of high intensity sport. Currently, Mori's blank face was in the lead. Hikaru held Kaoru's hand, hiding the action carefully by pressing their arms together, and pretended that he wasn't watching an impassive Kyoya out of the corner of his eye.

By the time the car rolled to a stop, Hunni practically ninja kicked the door open, desperate to be outside and away from the unbearable silence. The rest followed, bending and bowing out various travel aches, only to go as still as statues on the street.

They weren't oblivious. Privilege blinded them to a certain degree, but it didn't render them completely unaware. They knew that not everyone lived like them, oh yes they did, they were friends with Haruhi, weren't they?

Okay. Maybe they were oblivious. But only a very little bit.

But, really. This was Tamaki's mother. She was cut from the same cloth as them. So they'd at least been expecting an estate of some sort.

They weren't really sure what to do about the building before them; the whimsical cottage nestled in the French countryside.

"Um…," Hunni said, with a slow blink of his big brown eyes. "Kyo-chan? Are you sure we have the right place?"

Kyoya, who completely failed to look surprised, gave a short nod.

"Yes," he said. "Remember that Tamaki's mother vanished shortly after her son left for Japan. While she'd never be completely without money, she certainly wouldn't have an abundance of it like before. Some sacrifices were unavoidable, I'm sure."

"Oh." Hunni gave a little bounce as he processed this. "Well I think it's a super cute little house!"

It was cute. And it wasn't little, not by a commoner's standards. The cottage boasted at least four bedrooms, by the looks of it, and the garden just had to be enormous, because it was spilling around the cheerful yellow walls. Rolling green hills surrounded the house like a picture frame, and the sweet smell of early summer grass and wet, rejuvenated earth permeated the air. The softest breeze whispered around the boys like silk, tugging politely at their hands and hair.

"The French countryside is famous for its scenery," Kyoya said, dismissing it so easily with an elegant shrug. "I'm sure it's a very peaceful place to live."

They took the little path to the front door, a path decorated with potted plants and vibrant blooms that waved at them as they passed, cheerful sentries to show the way. The door was white and pleasantly smudged, and someone had stenciled 'Welcome' across the center of it. Kyoya knocked with two fingers, as if secretly afraid that the word would reach out and infect him.

The door opened. Haruhi stood on the threshold and blinked at them for several long moments, brown eyes wide and befuddled.

Hikaru rocked back on his heels and tried to pretend that seeing her wasn't like getting sucker stabbed in the gut.

It took a little while, but Haruhi finally managed to locate her voice somewhere in the vicinity of her spleen.

"You guys," she said, and that little bit of breathless confusion in her voice took the blade in Hikaru's gut and twisted it. "You're here."

Kyoya's eyebrow arched, smooth and subtle.

"You invited us, didn't you?" And the subtle edge of mockery in his voice made Hikaru want to snap at him. But it also made him wonder.

"Right," Haruhi said, and remembered herself enough to step back and let them in. "But it's so fast. I mean, it's been barely twenty-four hours since I sent that message. Tamaki and I weren't expecting you for two days, at least."

Hunni deposited his bag carefully on the floor, and then proceeded to throw himself at Haruhi like a boy lolita love-bomb, his arms sliding strong around her waist.

"Kyo-chan picked us up!" he offered, by way of greeting. "He emailed us before you did, Haru-chan, and then he brought his fancy plane to meet us!"

Haruhi's warm look of amused exasperation dissolved immediately, and she whipped her head from Hunni to Kyoya. Hikaru caught a glimpse at the anger in her eyes, and came to sudden realization.

He and the other boys may not understand what was driving a wedge between the boss and his most beloved subject, and in turn causing Kyoya-sempai to act like even more of an icy bastard.

But Haruhi did.

"That was nice of you, Kyoya-sempai," she said after a long moment of silent communication. Hikaru had tried to interpret it, but Haruhi's eyes were too angry to read words in, and Kyoya's face never gave anything away. He'd ask Kaoru later; by the way his brother's hands were locked tight around his notebook binding, he'd understood every unspoken word.

"It was my pleasure."

And Hikaru could tell by the sudden softening in Haruhi's eyes that she could also see Tamaki in Kyoya's Host Club smile.

"Thanks for coming, you guys," she said, tearing her attention away from Kyoya with what appeared to be great effort. She beamed warm smiles at the other boys instead, and Hikaru tried desperately to ignore the way that it burned a little brighter when it was turned in his direction. "It'll mean a lot to Tamaki."

"Where is the Boss?" Kaoru asked.

"Upstairs, with his mother," Haruhi said, with a soft sigh, and for the first time since stepping through the white doorway, Hikaru forced himself to really see her. She looked exhausted, with dark bruises ringing her eyes, and a soft pallor to her skin. "Her condition isn't bad enough that they need to move her…yet, but they don't want her up and about either." She tilted her head a little, taking in the soft music drifting down the stairs. "Tamaki's been playing for hours."

"Can we see him?" Mori asked quietly, and Haruhi flashed another weary smile in his direction.

"He'll probably be down soon," she said. "We haven't really left her side since we got here. So he'll probably wonder where I've gone."

"That must be difficult for you." And they all blinked, because it was Kyoya who said it, and the unspoken _are you alright_ in his voice was too dramatic a shift to process right away.

For a moment, Haruhi regarded him with a furrowed brow. Then, a tiny smile bowed her lips, a response to Kyoya's suddenly softer tone.

"It's okay," she said slowly. "It's not…like last time. Not like Mom."

Clarity came double-dipped in guilt. In the wake of their current concern, they'd all forgotten about Haruhi's mother, who'd passed away in a situation not un-similar to this.

But Kyoya had remembered.

And didn't that mean something?

A door opened gently upstairs. In all their shock at Kyoya's sudden concern, they'd missed the cessation of the soft music from above, and now Tamaki was coming down the stairs, his heart-winning face tight with worry and exhaustion.

"Haruhi," he called, rubbing stubbornly at sleepy purple eyes. "Who was at the…"

He stopped when he saw them there, gathered in the entryway. Those half-lidded eyes, weighed down by the lack of sleep, suddenly flew wide. For a moment, they stood frozen, like movie actors caught on pause.

Hikaru, for his part, had absolutely no idea what to do, or say.

_Hey, Boss. Wish there wasn't a medical emergency every time we get the group together._

_ So, ah…how's your mom? Is it weird talking to someone you haven't seen in years?_

_ I keep staring at your girlfriend's bare feet. Apparently, I am a filthy pervert with a Haruhi foot fetish. Sorry about that. _

Luckily for him, Hunni knew exactly what to do. The boy ran up the stairs and flung himself at the flabbergasted blonde.

"Tama-chan. Hi. We're here." Hunni tightened his arms around Tamaki's waist, and muffled his mouth with the taller boy's shirt. "We came."

The wide-eyed look of total surprise left Tamaki's face, to be replaced with something so soft, so amazingly open and honest and raw, that Hikaru suddenly believed in the curative powers of an embrace.

Maybe Hunni-sempai should hug Kyoya-sempai sometime. It might shake loose the icicle up his ass a little.

"You're here," Tamaki repeated, descending the stairs now with a companionable arm still slung around Hunni's neck. He drinks in the sight of each of them in turn, but his eyes linger longest on Kyoya's face. "You all came."

He reaches for Haruhi the instant he hits the bottom, and they tangle their fingers without even looking at each other. That little gesture, so easy and casual and intimate, hurts Hikaru worse than any kiss they might have shared, and he takes a soft and careful breath, ignoring Kaoru's swift glance of concern.

"Of course," Kyoya said.

"You're here so fast," Tamaki remarked, with a weak smile. "You'll have to forgive me if I seem a bit shaken. We weren't expecting you so soon."

It was strange to see Tamaki so soft, and so subdued, and not throwing himself at them like the idiot he is. Kaoru took a tiny step forward, but no more, because Hikaru didn't move closer with him.

"Kyoya picked us up, Boss," he offered.

Tamaki's eyes flared on Kyoya's face, a swirling mixture of happiness and complete confusion, the softer side of Haruhi's earlier anger.

"Mon ami," he said softly, almost a whisper, and certainly for only Kyoya's ears. But Kyoya refused to acknowledge it at all.

"How is your mother?" he asked, and Tamaki wilted a little under his scrupulously polite tone.

"As…as well as can be expected, I guess. My apologies, but I really should get back to her. I don't want to leave her alone for too long."

Hikaru watched as Haruhi's fingers tightened around Tamaki's.

"I can go," she offered. "Give you a chance to catch up, fill everyone in. I don't mind."

"No, no. I know that you aren't that comfortable with it, Haruhi. It's all right."

So. Apparently Tamaki had remembered Haruhi's weakness, same as Kyoya.

And that definitely meant something.

"Leave your bags here for now," Tamaki decided. "And follow me. We'll figure out sleeping arrangements later. For now, I'll introduce you."

"Ah," Hikaru gives an uncomfortable squirm. "Are you sure that's a good a idea, Boss?"

Tamaki's smile turns on him, and it's soft, and sad, somehow.

"Of course," he said. "When I told her you were coming, she said that she wanted to meet you." He smiled a little brighter for Hikaru, but the older twin watches his eyes slide away, to Kyoya. "Meet my friends that I call family."

...

_A/N: What happened between Tamaki, Haruhi, and Kyoya to put such a strain on their friendship? What are they hiding from the others? And can they pull it together enough to support Tamaki in his time of need? Possible flashbacks next chapter...so stay tuned. Happy Reading!_


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: Hello, friends! I'm back, and I bring you more Host Club memories! Thanks again, to my absolutely amazing reviewers/readers. You guys kick some serious ass, and I adore you all. Enjoy!_

_I do not own Ouran High School Host Club; it belongs to Bisco Hatori.  
_

**Fight and Defend**

As the Host Club marched its way up the narrow staircase, Haruhi oscillated back and forth between fuming and fidgeting. A part of her dreaded going back into that room, and standing by that sickbed. Not because of its occupant; Tamaki's mother was possibly the sweetest, softest person Haruhi had ever met. But because seeing her there, swaddled and sinking in all those white sheets with tired eyes and fever-dimmed smile brought back memories that Haruhi couldn't ignore, no matter how much she denied their existence to everyone else. Tamaki's mother had blonde hair and purple eyes, just like her son, but after long hours of soft chatting and sometimes silent vigil, Haruhi's brain would fog with sleep and suddenly those long locks would be brown, and those soft eyes would be mirrors of her own.

_Don't cry, sweetie. Mommy doesn't want to see you cry. Smile for me instead, alright?_

Haruhi's hand, the one not entangled with Tamaki's, tightened into a small, shaking fist. She much preferred to focus on her anger. It was clean, and uncomplicated, and totally unfettered by unwanted memories. To help promote it, Haruhi turned and aimed one narrow-eyed glare at the boy bringing up the rear.

Kyoya didn't even acknowledge it. Just continued forward, his face perfectly bland and blank.

_Jerk. I know he saw that; he sees everything. How many months, and not a word. Well, you're here, aren't you, Kyoya-sempai? Good luck getting away from me now. You and I are going to have some serious words._

And, because she knew he was watching, no matter how hard his eyes were focused on the air in front of him, Haruhi beamed him a silent message via her brown eyes.

_Consider yourself caught, tagged, and bagged, Sempai. Your butt is mine._

The corner of Kyoya's mouth twitched the tiniest bit. With a heavy scowl, Haruhi deliberately turned her attention to the other members of the group. At least she wasn't the only nervous one anymore. Kaoru looked supremely uncomfortable, clinging to both his notebook and his brother's arm. Hikaru had blown straight past uncomfortable, and landed down hard in panic land. His handsome face was white, and his golden eyes were wide and shifty.

Haruhi's scowl softened into a contemplative frown as she recalled that those shifty eyes had yet to land on her for more than a few fleeting seconds. Since stepping through the cottage door, Hikaru's eyes had only hit her face a handful of times. The way he jerked his gaze away the second she noticed it, it was almost as if Haruhi's eyes burned him somehow.

_Not on the outside though_, Haruhi considered grimly. _I'm going to have to have a chat with him as well. Okay. Set them up and knock them down then, Fujioka. _

Haruhi made sure that her arm brushed his as she stepped past him on the staircase. Hikaru jumped like she'd pressed a branding iron to his skin, and turned his face away.

_Oh. Oh, Hikaru_.

"This is it," Tamaki said, as he led them down a spacious and sun-drenched hallway. "Her room."

The Host King paused for a moment, his long fingers wrapped around the door knob.

"Please," he murmured, and the ache in his voice had Haruhi's hand clamping down hard on his. "I know that none of you will disappoint me. But, please. Be…kind with her."

Haruhi chanced a glance over her shoulder. Hikaru and Kaoru's eyes were wide. Mori's hands had tightened into surprised fists. Even Hunni looked lost and uncertain. They'd heard Tamaki soft, and they'd heard him sad.

But never had they heard him so…hesitant. So unsure, and scared, and so very young sounding.

_That's right. He's serious. This is serious._

The sudden dry burning in Haruhi's throat, the unexpected prick and tingle in her eyes, knocked Haruhi a bit off balance. She swallowed hard and looked away, and accidentally locked eyes with Kyoya. For one brief, highly charged second, his eyes stayed on hers, he was looking, he was actually _seeing her_, and there was no way she was imagining the slight softening in his face.

Then, his eyes were on the wall again, and his face was hard and blank like stone, and Haruhi was left with the realization that the tingle in her eyes had morphed into wet and rolling tracks down her cheeks.

Haruhi turned back to face the wall, and wondered at the sudden chill in her chest. She scrubbed slowly at her eyes, and her fingers felt brittle and frozen, her lips and cheeks like glassy sheets of ice.

"Haru-chan," Hunni whispered as Tamaki turned the door handle and led the way inside the room. "Are you hurting somewhere?"

"No, Hunni-sempai."

And really, it wasn't a lie. She was far too cold, far too numb, to process any pain.

….

Whatever magic Tamaki possessed, to bring people to his side and keep them there with silken ties of love and friendship, clearly came from his mother's side. One look at Anne-Sophie's, sitting so soft and delicate, a fairy-queen wrapped in white lace blankets, and the boys all but tripped over their own brains. Hunni's big brown eyes went as wide as saucers, and began to sparkle suspiciously. Hikaru and Kaoru openly gaped. Mori's face was as blank as ever, but his body went tight with the instinctive need to protect and defend.

Tamaki released Haruhi's hand, and went to his mother's side. The woman smiled up at him, a bright, beautiful smile that perfectly echoed the limitless love shining in her soft violet eyes. The hand she used to reach for his was the perfect feminine mirror of his own; long-fingered, soft-palmed, and elegant.

"Mother, may I present the members of the elite Ouran Host Club? And my friends," he added softly. "Gentlemen, this is my mother. Anne-Sophie Grantaine."

Tamaki's mother turned that blinding smile of welcome on the boys, and flustered hot flushes into their cheeks.

"Oh, it's so wonderful to meet you. Tamaki talks of nothing else."

Suddenly, it seemed that everyone's vocabulary had dwindled to Mori-like proportions.

"Um."

"Mm."

"Bwah."

And then Kyoya stepped forward and saved them from their own stupidity with a small, perfectly proper bow.

"Ms. Grantaine," he greeted smoothly. "It's a pleasure. I'm honored to make your acquaintance."

Anne-Sophie gave a little laugh that sounded like chiming bells.

"You must be Kyoya," she said. "Kyoya Ootori. Tamaki's told me so much about you."

Kyoya glanced up, and the gentle weight of understanding, of sympathy, in those too-similar violet eyes fell on his shoulders like silk-wrapped bricks. Carefully, Kyoya averted his gaze and eased out of his bow.

"And with your sweet face, you can only be Hunni-sempai," Anne-Sophie continued, turning away from Kyoya with a soft and knowing smile. "And you must be Mori-sempai, so big and strong."

Hunni beamed, his brown eyes widening with delight. Mori shifted a little, the tiniest bit of embarrassment staining his cheeks a subtle pink.

"And Hikaru, and Kaoru." Anne-Sophie laughed again. "Tamaki's told me such stories about the two of you."

Golden eyes narrowed and flashed over Anne-Sophie's shoulder. Tamaki met their dual glare with a decidedly evil grin.

_Remember when we met Ranka for the first time, and the two of you walked all over my back? Hello, vengeance. How sweet you taste._

"It's super nice to meet you, Ms. Grantaine!" Hunni chirped, tucking his hands behind his back.

"Please," Tamaki's mother said, her eyes soft as they searched Hunni's face. "Call me Anne. Tamaki's told me so much. I feel close to all of you already."

She extended her free hand in warm invitation.

"I'm sure you're all exhausted. But please, won't you stay and talk with me awhile?"

"I'll go and get some chairs from the kitchen," Tamaki said immediately. He brought his mother's hand to his lips. "I'll be right back."

He dashed out of the room almost like he was afraid that it would change if he left it for too long.

"Sweet boy," Anne-Sophie murmured, almost absently. The softest breeze danced through the open window, and the sunlight filtered through the lace curtains, catching fire on her golden hair. "I should thank all of you for that, I think."

The boys exchanged identical looks of confusion.

"What do you mean, Ms. Anne?" Hunni asked, a bit hesitantly. "You're his Mommy. We didn't raise Tama-chan."

"Yes," Anne-Sophie's smile was soft again, and her eyes searched Hunni's face like she saw something precious there. "And he's always been sweet, such a caring boy. But it's been so long, and I feared that the…environment in which he was living might have hardened him, somehow." Her violet eyes traveled, lingering on each occupant of the room. "I am glad…so very glad and grateful that he found you. I think that you're the reason, all of you, why he stayed the way he is. And that is why I owe you my thanks."

The barest bit of wet welled in her eyes, and as one, the entire Host Club drew back like she'd bitten them instead.

"I'm sorry," she said, chuckling a little at the helpless looks on their faces, nearly identical in their horror. "This may seem a bit forward. But I've been wanting to express my gratitude since Tamaki first started telling me your stories. So it's been simmering, I guess."

"Ms. Anne," Haruhi sputtered weakly, for even after spending days with the woman, she was still taken aback by her kindness. It was like Tamaki, just like Tamaki, and it both warmed and worried her. Where did it come from, this endless generosity? How did they make it so genuine?

Tamaki shuffled back through the door, hauling three wooden chairs in his wake. His eyes immediately sought his mother's face, and he honed in on her damp cheeks like a heat-seeking projectile. He abandoned the chairs by the door with a loud thump, and dashed to his mother's side.

"Mother! What's wrong? What happened? Are you hurting? The doctor said not to overdo!"

Anne-Sophie stilled the frantic fingers moving over her face.

"Hush. Darling. I'm fine."

She stole a glance at the Host Club members, still huddled uncertainly against the wall, and laughed.

"Although, I think I've terrified your friends."

The boys blushed, and retrieved the chairs. There were three chairs in the room already, and Tamaki chose to sit on the bed by his mother's side, so the rest of the club members arranged their seats in a loose circle around the centerpiece of sheets and blankets.

By some silent and unanimous vote, Haruhi had ended up flanking Anne-Sophie's other side. The boys had given her a look that read something along the lines of; 'she's one of your kind, and we don't have the appropriate equipment to figure out her secrets anyway', and shooed her into her seat without actually moving. Haruhi took it, but the look she gave them promised all sorts of pain later on.

"I've got to say, Haruhi," Anne-Sophie said warmly, turning to the girl on her left. "After getting to know you a little better these past few days, I never figured you for the Host Club type."

"I'm not."

"How do you know if there's a Host Club type?" Kaoru interrupted curiously.

Anne-Sophie shot him an amused glance from underneath her eyelashes.

"Darling. I'm French."

Kaoru choked for a moment, his face flushing shades darker than his hair, and then gave a helpless, stretching smile.

"So, if you're not the Host Club type," Anne-Sophie said, answering Kaoru's grin before turning her attention back to Haruhi. "Then how ever did you find yourself a full-fledged member?"

Some days, Haruhi wasn't very clear on that herself.

"Um…well…you see…"

"We kidnapped her!" Hunni blurted helpfully, kicking his feet gently against his chair.

Anne-Sophie barely blinked. If anything, she only leaned forward, fascination written on her face.

"I see. But then, if it was only a kidnapping, why did you stay?"

Tamaki cried, "She stayed for me!" at the same exact moment that Haruhi muttered, "Stockholm Syndrome."

Mori twitched, Hunni laughed, and Kaoru snickered into his fist. Even Hikaru snorted a little, when he saw Tamaki seriously considering the far corner of the room.

Anne-Sophie gave her son's leg an absent pat as he began to flail, albeit very carefully, so as not to accidently strike his mother.

"It must be difficult," she said blandly, pitching her voice a little so that it rose over her son's wails of "Haruhi, how could you!" and "Betrayed, abandoned by my own love!". "To be around so many boys all the time. Are they terribly protective?"

Haruhi's eyes slid sideways, to Mori, who was still slightly rigid with his instinctive need to protect the frail figure swaddled on the bed.

"Oh, you know," she said, her voice dryer than hot sand in the summer time. "They have their moments."

She took her eyes off of Mori and slid them over to Kaoru instead. She gave him a tiny smile, and after a split second's worth of confusion, the boy smiled back, his golden eyes warming with recognition.

"Now they're pretty good about backing off when I ask them to, and understanding that I can take care of myself. But in the beginning, they just had no idea." Haruhi settled back in her seat and prepared to play the game, the one that had fixed them once before. Maybe the magic that it had worked to bring them all back together could repeat itself now. "They did it a lot more often back then, but they even now, they still forget sometimes. And they protect me whether I want them to or not."

….

_"This is a bad idea."_

_ They weren't listening. Haruhi really wasn't terribly surprised, because honestly, when had they ever? But still, she was supposed to be the level-headed one, right? So, she was honor-bound to try and knock some sense through their abnormally thick skulls at least one more time._

_ "This is a really, really bad idea," she tried again, even as Mori pressed a wooden stick into her palm. _

_ The only response he offered her was some sort of vowel sound before he wandered away again. _

_ Haruhi sighed, and stared down at her bare toes. She was standing, albeit very reluctantly, in the private dojo behind Ouran academy, the one that the Karate and Kendo clubs used for their meetings. She had stripped off her shoes, and her powder-blue jacket, and felt supremely stupid, standing there in her white shirt and black slacks with a giant stick in her hands. _

_ Spread across the matted floor, the boys were in similar states of undress. The twins were poking each other with their sticks, and Haruhi knew it was only a matter of time before they teamed up instead and went after someone else. Tamaki was executing some sort of excited pole dance with his weapon, while Kyoya watched with mild horror and great resignation. Haruhi peered a little closer at his face, interpreted the barely there smirk as Kyoya's expression of wild glee, and surmised that the first thing Kyoya went after with his stick would be Tamaki's face. Across the room, Hunni leaned easily on his stick and surveyed the Host Club with a soft smile. The amusement in his eyes was knowing, almost jaded, and for once, he actually looked his age. _

_ Haruhi looked down at the stick in her hands, shuffled it a little to get a better measure of its weight, and realized that after three or four energetic swings, she'd be pretty much unable to lift it over her head again._

_ "This is stupid," she called. "One day of self-defense training is not going to help me in the long run."_

_ The boys paused in their various expressions of excitement and glanced in her direction._

_ "Don't be such a buzz kill, Haruhi!" The twins chorused. _

_ "It takes years of training to reach skill levels like Mori-sempai and Hunni-sempai," she said stubbornly. "And besides, I know I look like a dude, but I'm still built differently than you guys. It's going to be twice as hard learning just one technique from someone who's used to training boys."_

_ Hunni slung his stick casually over his shoulders as he strolled to Haruhi's side, ignoring Tamaki's anguished cry in the background._

_ "MAMA! Make our darling daughter stop using those nasty boy words!"_

_ "Moron."_

_ "This is supposed to be fun, Haru-chan!" Hunni scolded, as he stopped at her side with a little bounce. "Aren't you even a little bit excited?"_

_ Haruhi sighed. Sometimes, she really hated those big brown eyes._

_ "I guess," she muttered. "But I just don't see the point of it, Hunni-Sempai."_

_ Hunni laughed._

_ "Just fun!" he announced, giving another excited bounce and spin. "And…and maybe you can practice some of the things we show you." Hunni turned a guileless smile in her direction. "Haru-chan is really bad at looking after herself sometimes. It makes us worry. So maybe you'll learn some stuff today that will make us feel better. Kay?"_

_ Oh, Haruhi though instantly. Oh, I see._

_ She looked around the room, and suddenly she could read the beach incident in their eyes like a well-loved book, an identical story in six different faces. Something soft and warm uncurled in her chest._

_ You morons, she thought fondly, and gripped her stick with newfound purpose._

_ "I get it, Hunni-sempai," she said. "Go ahead and show me, then."_

_ Six sets of shoulders relaxed simultaneously, and Haruhi read relief on the air. From the looks on their faces, she inferred that they'd been dreading her reaction to finding out the true purpose of this activity. It was sort of nice to surprise them._

_ Once the weapons were distributed, Hunni and Mori paired them up. Tamaki gave Kyoya a wide, excited smile, and from the look on the Shadow Lord's face, Haruhi figured that Tamaki had maybe thirty seconds after the start call before he got a stick to the skull. Hikaru and Kaoru were ranged together, and giving a grinning Hunni identical looks of suspicion. _

_ Haruhi looked at her sparring partner, and tried not to focus on just how high she had to crane her neck in order to meet his eyes. _

_ "Interesting match-ups," she observed quietly. "Any particular reason behind them?"_

_ "Hikaru and Kaoru don't have much style, but they possess a great deal of energy," Mori intoned softly. "Mitsukuni is also…enthusiastic. They'll wear each other out. Kyoya is the only one Tamaki knows he can't really hurt, and Kyoya wouldn't let anyone other than himself attack his king." Mori shifted the stick expertly in his large hands. "I am more advanced at this form of martial arts than Mitsukuni. And you are the one we worry for the most. We agreed that you'd be safest with the most experienced."_

_ Haruhi couldn't decide if she was flattered, or frustrated._

_ "Also," Mori continued. "Sometimes it's hard for you to see past Mitsukuni's appearance. You view me as the most unbreakable. So you'll attack me with actual force."_

_ Haruhi snorted out a laugh and briefly contemplated the muscles in Mori's arms and chest. They really thought she'd be able to damage him? Oh, her sweet, deluded, little boys. _

_ Mori's eyes warmed, his version of an answering smile, and then motioned to Mitsukuni. _

_ "Alright!" the blonde boy cried, drawing the attention of every occupant in the room. "Takashi and I will show you the first move you'll be learning."_

_ It didn't look very difficult. Just a simple thrust and parry with the sticks. But once Haruhi found herself facing Mori once again, the stick suddenly seemed very frail. _

_ "Um…," she offered, eyeing the area she was supposed to be poking. It was corded with muscle. _

_ "Start!" Hunni called cheerfully._

_ Haruhi didn't even have time to attempt a thrust before the sharp sound of stick meeting flesh filled the room._

_ They all turned to see Tamaki parked on his ass on the matted floor, cupping his nose, while Kyoya hovered over him with a very satisfied smirk._

_ "You dropped your guard. Moron."_

_ Tamaki's outraged howls filled the room. Haruhi couldn't stop the snicker that bubbled in her throat. Had she predicted thirty seconds? Kyoya hadn't even given Tamaki ten._

_ "Kyo-chan," Hunni called, and there was suppressed laughter in his voice as well. "We're just blocking now. We'll teach you how to hit Tama-chan in the face later."_

_ Kyoya inclined his head the barest bit._

_ "My apologies, Hunni-sempai," he said smoothly. "It was instinct."_

_ Behind Hunni, the twins collapsed in silent hysterics. _

_ They resumed their stances at Hunni's command, and Kyoya behaved himself from there. But while the other boys were starting to gain some sort of rhythm with the sticks, Haruhi had yet to successfully hit Mori's skin, or block his blow when he came after her. The stick was heavy, and getting heavier every time she failed, and Haruhi hated how awkward, and uncomfortable she felt, stretched into such an unfamiliar stance. And Mori had started rapping his stick against her knuckles every time she failed to parry his thrust, or break through his own defenses. Not hard enough to really hurt, but the sharp sting began to mix with Haruhi's mounting frustration, forming an unsafe cocktail of emotion. _

_ After one particularly sharp smack to her aching fingers, Haruhi tossed sweat-soaked brown bangs out of eyes that had narrowed dangerously._

_ "Mori-sempai?" she said, her voice light in spite of her venomous glare._

_ "Mm?"_

_ "You know I respect you, right?" she asked sweetly. "As my sempai, and a martial artist?"_

_ "Mm."_

_ Haruhi bared her teeth in a tight smile._

_ "I'm glad. But if you keep hitting me with that stupid stick, I'm going put my foot in your face."_

_ Mori smiled, actually smiled, with teeth and everything, like this was the reaction he'd been waiting for. And Haruhi fell off balance for a moment, because Mori's real smile was sort of like a shooting star, beautiful, but oh so rare. _

_ "If you think you can," he said, and his voice was warm with approval._

_ He brought his stick forward again, going for the vulnerable skin of her belly that was already bruised by his attentions. And Haruhi narrowed her eyes even further, and let out a soft snarl as she moved her stick to meet his own._

_ The sharp crack of wood meeting wood echoed around the room, and Haruhi felt the impact reverberate all the way up her arms._

_ "Good," Mori said softly, while Haruhi gaped at her stick in a blank sort of shock. "Again."_

_He came after her again, and Haruhi raised her aching arms to meet him out of instinct. _

_ After a while, the sound of their sticks became the focal point of Haruhi's world. She still missed more often than not, and the ache in her arms had become a sort of silent scream, but every time she managed to deflect his attack, something inside of her laughed, loud and triumphant. But Mori was working her across the floor now, forcing her to move her feet as well as her hands, and while Haruhi's inner sadist might have been having a good time, her body was slowly losing its energy. It became habit for the other boys to jump in as Mori moved her past their respective sparring places, and block one of his blows for her._

_ "Darling daughter, are you hurt?" Tamaki bellowed as he stopped Mori's stick with his own._

_ "Pay attention, idiot. He almost got you," Hikaru snarled, as he glared something subtle at Mori-sempai. _

_ "Come on, Haru-chan!" Hunni winked over his shoulder as he deflected Mori's blow with practiced ease. "No need to go easy on Takashi; he can take it!"_

_ "Really, Haruhi. Is that the best you can do?" Kyoya drawled as he blocked Mori's blow almost lazily, but with a bit more warning in his thrust. _

_ "No worries, Haruhi," Kaoru said. "I've got you."_

_ And suddenly, the same anger that had helped her block Mori's hits in the first place blossomed into a hot, towering rage in Haruhi's mind. Later, after the haze had cleared, she would realize that she was offended by the fact that they kept jumping in front of her._

_ But, for now, she was just pissed. _

_ "Knock it off!" she yelled, giving Kaoru a hard shove to the side. "I don't need your help!" She swung her stick wildly, in an over the head arc that made her muscles shriek._

_ And hit a stunned Mori-sempai right in the face._

_ The room went absolutely silent as Mori staggered back from the force of the blow, his eyes the widest that Haruhi had ever seen them._

_ "Oh," Haruhi said, her anger swept away and buried by a wave of pure horror. "Oh, no. Mori-sempai, I am so sorry!"_

_ But Mori didn't seem to hear her frantic apology. Instead, his eyes crinkled, his mouth twitched at the corners, and amazingly, he began to laugh, in great booming bellows that were even rarer than his actual smile. Hunni joined in almost at the same time, his giggles high pitched and riddled with glee. Tamaki lost it right after that, with a slow, disbelieving shake of his head. The twins laughed themselves nearly to tears, their arms wrapped around each other for support. Kyoya didn't laugh, of course, but he sported the widest smirk Haruhi had ever seen._

_ "It's not funny!" she cried, her voice hitching dangerously. "You idiots, I could have hurt him, I could have…" And then she was laughing too, great, big, whooping howls that she was powerless to control. _

_ They laughed for what felt like hours, eventually sliding down to sit on the mats when their legs wouldn't hold them anymore. Tears rolled down red cheeks, and their stomachs started to hurt. But they still couldn't stop. _

_ "Never seen…," Tamaki started, before bursting into a fresh flurry of giggles. "Mori-sempai, your FACE!"_

_ "Right in the nose!" Hikaru and Kaoru chanted, with perfect unison even in their hilarity. "She got him right in the nose!"_

_ Haruhi cracked open streaming eyes, saw the very faint red mark down the center of Mori's face, and lost herself once again._

_ "I don't know what happened," she admitted much, much later, when they'd calmed to a reasonable degree. "I just…I got so mad."_

_ "Why?" Tamaki asked curiously._

_ They were sprawled on the floor now, flopped over into comfortable positions. Their words were still interrupted by the occasional snort or snicker. _

_ "Because," Haruhi said, resting her chin on her updrawn knees. "Because, you guys kept jumping in front of me."_

_ Tamaki frowned. He was on his stomach, with his chin resting on his hands. Next to him, the twins were still listening through giggles, sprawled flat on their backs. _

_ "Of course we did," he reasoned. "We could tell that you were getting tired, Haruhi. We didn't want to see you hurt."_

_ "Yeah," Haruhi agreed. "But wasn't the point of today to teach me to defend myself?"_

_ Soft silence. The laughter finally drained away, but the mood hadn't darkened, really. Just shifted gears. _

_ "It's…sweet," Haruhi continued. "How much you guys want to protect me. I get it; I'm not mad. But…I really can look after myself. You guys have to start trusting me a little. You're not…you can't always be there. Not for stuff like this."_

_ Six sets of eyes surveyed her thoroughly, with varying degrees of sheepishness and blinding affection._

_ "So I guess today's exercise wasn't stupid after all," Haruhi finished softly. _

_ "I disagree," Kyoya countered, but not in a tone that implied actual opposition. The gleam behind his glasses seemed to suggest that he simply had more ideas in addition to hers. "Today's activity was pointless, to a degree."_

_ "Oh?" Haruhi asked, raising an eyebrow at the older boy. "And why is that?"_

_ Kyoya's smirk was nowhere near as wide as before, but the shadow of it was still there._

_ "You say that we can't always be there," he said smoothly. "But, really Haruhi, if something were to truly happen, do you honestly think anything could keep these idiots away?"_

_ And me, went unspoken. Do you really think we wouldn't be there for you in an instant?_

_ You're ours, after all._

_ Haruhi's mouth opened, and then shut itself again when the appropriate words failed to appear. She ducked her head a little, and let herself feel the painful ache of their bonds for a moment._

_ Not true, she reminded herself sadly. It won't always be like this, they'll leave me in the end. But it's nice to pretend, for a little while. _

_ "But we know that you don't always need us, Haru-chan!" Hunni interjected cheerfully. "After all, you beat Takashi, didn't you?"_

_ The next warm wave of their laughter didn't banish Haruhi's bittersweet thoughts completely, but her present contentment allowed her to push them back into a darker corner of her brain. _

_ She didn't want sadness, not right now. She wanted the sunlight filtering in through the dojo windows, and the sweat-stained mat beneath her cheek, and the sound of her friends' laughter almost convincing her that maybe, maybe they would really stay._

…

Anne-Sophie leaned back on her pillows and laughed, long and hard.

"So impressive, Haruhi," she giggled.

Haruhi grinned, a bit sheepishly. She caught Mori's eyes, and the look he sent her way was warm.

"I didn't mean to," she offered weakly. Anne-Sophie's laughter was infectious, and the other boys were smiling as well. Even Hikaru. "I just…got mad."

"Of course," Anne-Sophie agreed, still chuckling softly. "Boys can be difficult companions. And Tamaki did tell me that you all have an unfortunate tendency to _loom_."

The rhythm of her laughter changed, became small, dry coughs that rattled in her lungs. The smiles slid from the boys' faces as Tamaki lunged forward, reaching for his mother's shaking shoulders.

"Mother?" he whispered.

She waved a gentle hand at him.

"Hush, Darling," she said again, her voice just a tiny bit strained. "I'm fine. Don't spoil it."

There was a small awkward silence as Tamaki continued to stare anxiously into his mother's face.

"That's not the only time we surprised Takashi!" Hunni burst in, his smile bright and determined. "Remember, Tama-chan? Remember the party?"

Tamaki's smile was bit sick, and sort of shaky, but he tried. He turned his face back to his friends and slid back from his mother's side.

"Of course."

But he didn't let go of her hand.

...

_A/N: What sort of party could shock the ever-stoic Mori? And what's the real reason behind Kyoya's cold behavior; can Haruhi bring him back with memories alone? Stay tuned to find out. Happy Reading!_


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: Sorry for the wait, friends and neighbors. My brain needed a break after the monster one-shot I wrote for my Fullmetal piece. But trust me when I say I won't take as long on the next chapter, because I'm so pumped to write it (you'll see why at the end)! Thanks, as always, to my amazing readers, and especially my reviewers. I adore you all!_

_I do not own Ouran High School Host Club; it belongs to Bisco Hatori.  
_

**Twice Shy**

"Remember, Tama-chan? Remember the party?"

The atmosphere in the small room was strained, and anxious. The soft sunlight filtering in through the lace curtains, and the cheery vase of yellow flowers did nothing to dispel the edge of unease. On the opulent bed, Anne-Sophie pressed delicate fingers against her lips, to contain the tiny coughs that bubbled in her chest, and Tamaki clutched at her hand with something like desperation. The smile that he offered in answer to Hunni's question was stretched too thin, and sick around the edges.

"Of course."

"Which party, Hunni-sempai?" Kaoru asked. He was clinging to his notebook again, long fingers seeking comfort from the familiar binding pressed against his skin. But only with one hand, Haruhi noticed. The other was tangled with Hikaru's, half hidden underneath their chairs.

"Takashi's birthday." Hunni's smile was the only unwavering one in the room. Like a small sun, it beamed, bright and determined. But his eyes were dark and serious, despite the cheer on his lips and in his voice. "The last one we celebrated with the Host Club."

Despite the semi-tense situation, Haruhi's cheeks flamed cherry red.

"Hunni-sempai," she said, half in warning and half in plea.

The look that Hunni shot her was vaguely apologetic, but it also conveyed that he was sort of willing to shove her under the spotlight to help deactivate the situation in the room.

"Oh," Hunni said, his voice dripping with innocence. "Do you remember it too, Haru-chan?"

….

_They were being stalked. _

_ This wasn't an uncommon activity. In fact, the members of the Ouran High School Host Club found the day strange if they weren't shadowed by a flock of a fluttering, giggling girls through the school hallways. Haruhi bore it with patient smiles, the twins with shameless winks that turned the crowd behind them into a squealing, swooning mess. Hunni gifted them with bright waves and giggles, and Mori gave them the occasional grunt of acknowledgement. Kyoya ignored them completely, catering to his cool guy persona, and Tamaki…_

_ Tamaki wriggled with delight every time he spied the mass meandering at his heels. _

_ Typically, the girls did nothing more than fall in step behind the Host Club, and whisper giddily at their backs. It was annoying, but affectionately so, and could be easily ignored by those that had no taste for it (Mori, Haruhi, Kyoya). They hardly ever traveled in packs of more than four or five, and because the upperclassmen typically left the stalking to the younger ones, those packs were painfully shy. They were almost never brave enough to reach out and touch, and those that did work up the nerve were quickly subverted by a sweet and silver-tongued reproach from Tamaki, or a politely frigid glance from Kyoya. _

_ But today, the groups that tailed them had grown from four or five to half of Ouran's female population. They packed themselves shoulder to shoulder in the already crowded hallway, and forced the students that showed little interest in the Host Club (pretty much every classmate with a Y chromosome) to squash themselves against the walls to get by. Today, the pack of females didn't bother to hide their whispers behind their hands, and so the chorus of their excited murmurs swelled inside the corridor, drowning out all other sound. And, emboldened by their sudden numbers, the girls started a bizarre game of truth or dare type molestation. Anonymous hands would slip out of the crowd, the faces that those hands belonged to safely hidden inside the tight press of bodies, and reach for the Host Club members. Tamaki and Hunni held up reasonably well, shaking off the stroking hands with scandalized smiles and gentle scolding. But Haruhi's face was bright red with embarrassment, and the vein in Kyoya's temple was beating out a steady, potentially lethal tattoo. Even the twins were starting to grimace as fingers pinched and prodded, their typically seductive masks melting off like candle wax. _

_ But no one had it worse than the tallest Host Club member. He was the reason for the crowd, and the recipient of the majority (as well as the most invasive) of the finger pokes. Today was his eighteenth birthday, and the girls of Ouran took that to mean that surely he would want special attention. And so they cooed words of congratulations, while their fingers continued to reach. _

_ Mori, to his credit, bore up reasonably well, certainly better than Kyoya or Haruhi. But anyone could read misery and discomfort in the hunch of his shoulders and the furrow of his brow, even though his face remained as impassive as ever. He grunted his thanks at their birthday salutations, and kept his eyes aimed at the ground. He knew that they weren't even close to finished yet. There were certain expectations that accompanied a Host Club position, and their patrons would expect to celebrate his birthday with him. For Tamaki's birthday, they'd all dressed up in old French Renaissance costumes and play-acted a royal court. For Hunni's birthday, Haruhi had compiled an afternoon full of commoner's games, and Hunni had run around for hours with a big smile and cake-stained cheeks. Even Kyoya had been forced into a sedate tea party to celebrate when his birthday rolled around. Mori wasn't sure exactly what Tamaki had planned, but he knew he had hours yet of prodding and poking and giggling and games to look forward to._

_ It's not that Mori minded their female clients. He could handle them two or three at a time, in a controlled setting like Music Room Three. But he didn't have Mitsukuni's naturally friendly spirit; when they came out in droves, they triggered his years of physical training, and his instincts urged him to get out of the crowd, to avoid being trapped. _

_ And he was so used to stepping back and allowing Mitsukuni to have the spotlight, because the boy beamed like a brilliant sun anyway. Mori enjoyed playing the pale and silent moon instead; he was comfortable in the shadows, always hovering protectively on the edge of Mitsukuni's brightness, but never really stepping into it. The girls that came to the Host Club to see only him left him honestly baffled. If Mitsukuni was the sun, and the rest of the hosts the colorful and contrasting planets (Kyoya the moody and mysterious Saturn, Tamaki the hot and romantic Venus, Haruhi the logical and brightly burning Mercury, Hikaru the passionate and temperamental Mars, Kaoru the intuitive and artistic Neptune), then wasn't Mori horribly plain and boring by comparison?_

_ Mori was hardly listening as the hosts, and their ensuing wake of fluttering females, reached the doors to Music Room Three. He had one ear cocked for Mitsukuni, as always, but that was so commonplace that unless Mitsukuni was speaking to him directly, Mori could easily filter it to a pleasant buzz of background noise. _

_ "Ladies," Tamaki cooed, waving his elegant hands at the crowd behind them. "Please stop shoving. It is unbecoming of such beautiful princesses to push."_

_ "We're just so excited, Tamaki," one of the older, and braver, clients squealed from the front of the crowd. "Mori-sempai is legal today!"_

_ Outwardly, Mori's straight face showed absolutely zero acknowledgement of the girl's statement. But safely inside, he nearly choked over his own panic._

_ Legal._

_ Well._

_ That explained all the prodding fingers._

_ Tamaki, God bless him, was as quick as ever. He had the girl in question in his arms and popped off her feet before the crowd behind her could even begin to voice their own excitement. _

_ "My beautiful princess, how you wound me," he gushed, his violet eyes radiating love-struck despair. "Do you mean to imply that my ardent affections for you now pale in comparison to Mori's age?"_

_ "Blargh," the girl offered in return, struck stupid by the impossibly beautiful face so close to hers. _

_ "Heartless, princess," Tamaki chided. "To throw away my love and deny me the pleasure of your company all for the sake of another." The hand that wasn't supporting the girl's back as Tamaki dipped her nearly horizontal to the floor came up to cup her cheek. "You've broken my heart so beautifully, my dear. But I suppose that I shall find a way to carry on, as wretched as an existence it may be without your beauty."_

_ As Tamaki brought the girl back to her feet, keeping a careful hand on her waist after a quick and assessing glance at her shaking knees, he used his long fingers to brush at the tears of despair he'd summoned to lie on his lashes. _

_ The crowd erupted like a veritable volcano of estrogen. _

_ The girl staggered out of Tamaki's embrace, looking particularly punch-drunk, and half-wandered back into the screaming mob behind her. _

_ With one more woeful glance at the girl in question, Tamaki retreated back to his own crowd as well. Mori shifted just a little as he passed, and gave Tamaki a subtle shoulder bump to convey his gratitude. Tamaki flashed him a small, secret smile. _

_ "Shall we go in, gentlemen?" he asked. _

_ Mori sighed. Might as well get this over with._

_ The doors to Music Room 3 swung open, assaulting the hosts and the crowd behind them with rose petals. As the girls swooned and screamed, the Host Club meandered through the door. _

_ And let it swing shut behind them._

_ Confused, Mori glanced back at the wooden panels, hearing the good-natured 'aww's of disappointment from the other side. He took a brief moment to survey the strangers standing further inside the room, dressed in matching white shirts. Then he turned back to the Mitsukuni, who was sporting a grin a mile wide. _

_ "You don't like noise, Takashi," the boy beamed. "So Usa-chan and I thought you might like a special, not-noisy party first. We told that ladies that you'd have cake with them tomorrow!"_

_ "We apologize for not keeping the crowd away completely," Kyoya added, giving his glasses a careless nudge. "But the girls needed to be appeased after we informed them that we'd be celebrating your birthday in private. Allowing them to follow us was good for business. You understand."_

_ If Mori would have been a different person, he might have rolled his eyes. He wasn't, and so he didn't, but that was okay because Haruhi did it for him. _

_ "We wanted to celebrate with you on your own first, Mori-sempai," she offered. "Eighteen is a big birthday, after all."_

_ "Yeah!" the twins cheered, pumping their fists in the air. "The birthday of cigarettes and strippers!"_

_ Mori let his eyes travel over the strangers in the room, both male and female, and felt the blood drain from his face._

_ "Which we didn't get," Haruhi hastened to add, before he fainted from sheer terror and embarrassment. "No matter how hard the twins lobbied for it."_

_ Mori nearly fainted anyway, the rush of relief was so strong. Instead, he focused once again on the small crew of six or seven people and let his brow furrow the barest bit to express his confusion._

_ "Kyo-chan helped me set it up," Hunni said, reading his face like a well-loved and familiar book. "He said that we couldn't do it during a regular Host Club party because it would hurt your…" Hunni fumbled, and glanced at a stoic Kyoya for assistance. _

_ "Your strong and silent personality type," he provided helpfully, giving his pen an idle tap against his notebook pages. _

_ "Yeah, that!" Hunni continued. "But I know you like it, and Kyo-chan said it was okay if we did it in private."_

_ Still confused, Mori left his brow furrowed. Hunni laughed, and grabbed at his hand. With an excited bounce, he towed his taller friend towards the center of the room. As they drew closer, Mori's ears caught the edges of soft sounds. _

_ Soft mewls. Sleepy barks. And restless rustling. _

_ Mori's brow smoothed out in pure surprise as they rounded the couch that had been blocking his view. Each white-clad stranger was standing by a basket lined with blankets. Nestled inside each basket was a different type of baby animal. There were a pair of kittens, curled around each other on a soft pink blanket. A tiny brown puppy burrowed sleepily against the wicker edge of his basket. A fluffy white rabbit watched Mori with twitching ears and solemn black eyes. A green and red turtle crawled restlessly around his white blanket. Two multi-colored guinea pigs gnawed at the carrots arranged on their basket bottom. _

_ Tamaki gave an ear-splitting squeal of excitement. _

_ "Where did they come from?" Mori asked quietly._

_ The girl standing next to the basket of kittens gave him a wide and friendly smile _

_ "All of these animals are currently housed at the pound on the other side of town," she explained. _

_ Mori flushed and shot a glance at Mitsukuni's grinning face. They didn't keep secrets from each other, so clearly the smaller boy was aware of his weakness for animals. But he was a little embarrassed at being outed in front of the rest of the club._

"_Because there are so many, they don't get much affection outside of basic care," the girl continued, and her glance down at the kittens by her feet was both and filled with familiar sadness. "So we're always happy to bring them out to events like birthday parties. People shower them with love, and there's always the chance that some of them will be adopted."_

"_I'LL GIVE THEM AFFECTION!" Tamaki bellowed, unable to stand it anymore, and he dove for the nearest basket. The boy standing next to it shot him a look that was equal parts amused and terrified, and sidled out of the way. _

_Hunni laughed, and then let out a war whoop of his own. He made a direct beeline for the basket with the fluffy white bunny. Eventually, the other hosts followed, making their way towards the baskets with a great deal more trepidation than their blonde club mates. The workers in white either politely stepped out of the way, or crouched down to demonstrate how to properly lift and handle the animal in question. _

_An hour later found Mori sitting cross-legged on the floor, a black and white kitten sprawled sleepily across his lap. Tamaki was crouched on the floor and stroking the kitten's tawny counterpart across the room. Hikaru and Kaoru were feeding the identical brown and white guinea pigs carrots, and laughing as their tiny teeth nibbled at their fingers. Mitsukuni was cradling the white rabbit in his arms, and bouncing him gently as he introduced him to Usa-chan. The turtle was still in the basket, but he and Kyoya seemed to be having some sort of solemn-eyed staring contest. The animal handlers were chatting quietly in a corner, watching the host club members with indulgent smiles. Soft sunlight filtered through the windows and illuminated patches of floor in golden light._

_Mori traced a gentle finger over the kitten's dainty paw, and allowed the tiny bubble of contentment filling his chest to expand. _

_He offered Haruhi a quick curve of his lips as she scooted down next to him on the floor. _

"_Tamaki's not leaving Ouran without a new pet," she observed dryly, as she watched the blonde prince cuddle his kitten. "I hope Antoinette doesn't get jealous."_

"_Mm," Mori offered in agreement. _

_Haruhi looked down at the puppy curled up in her lap. The little thing was burrowed against her leg, nestling against her in his sleep. _

"_I wish I could take him home with me, too," she murmured. "But Dad and I can't have animals in the apartments."_

_Mori was watching her when she glanced back up. She shrugged, and settled for stroking the puppy's soft fur. _

"_Did you have a happy birthday, Mori-sempai?" she asked after a few minutes of comfortable silence._

_Mori considered the kitten warming his legs._

"_It's…more than I ever expected," he said softly. "Better."_

_Haruhi smiled. _

"_I'm glad. You're not disappointed?" she asked, and gave his arm a teasing nudge. "By the lack of strippers and cigarettes?"_

_The look Mori shot her was dryer than summer dust. Haruhi laughed. _

"_The twins were vehement," she said. "They said it was a special birthday; you needed something to remember it by."_

"_Not that," Mori rumbled in reply. _

"_What then?" Haruhi asked. "Are you going to buy lottery tickets after school?"_

_Mori shook his head serenely, his eyes smiling at her joke. Haruhi considered him for a moment out of the corner of her eye. Then, she carefully shifted the sleeping puppy in her lap and leaned over. _

_Mori barely had time to process her movement and panic before Haruhi's lips landed gently on the corner of his mouth. He froze, a statue of shock, as she left them there for a moment, the soft brush of them like butterfly wings against his skin. _

_Then she shifted away and offered him a smile._

"_There," she said, with a practical nod and pleased grin. "That should do it. You'll remember that, right Mori-sempai?"_

_Mori, for once struck speechless by something other than choice, could only nod. _

_His eyes widened with panic once again as a small giggle sounded in his ears. The couch that he was leaning against had blocked him and Haruhi from view, but that didn't visions of Tamaki flying at him with betrayal in his eyes and vengeance in his fists from floating across his brain. _

_He relaxed marginally when he saw Mitsukuni standing before him, a smile stretching his lips. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Haruhi's cheeks flame the barest bit. _

"_Happy Birthday, Takashi," he said, and offered the cake that he was cradling in his hands._

_It wasn't very big; in fact, by regular Host Club standards, it was downright tiny. But it was expertly frosted and beautifully arranged on the serving platter, and no doubt it was the dark and bitter chocolate that he preferred. _

_Hunni giggled once again, flashing his grin at Haruhi, then shoved the cake into her hands and bounded across the room._

"_Tama-chan! Takashi's ready to cut the cake! Come help me find the forks!"_

_Haruhi laughed softly at the platter in her palms. Mori watched Mitsukuni lead Tamaki across the room, away from him and Haruhi, and allowed himself a smile. _

_Later, when the cake was being served, Mori made sure Hunni got the biggest piece._

…_._

_ The next day, Mori had cake again. However, instead of Haruhi, he had a veritable sea of females seated by his side. The girls chattered and laughed as Tamaki gushed over his new kitten, whom he'd dubbed Marie. She and Antoinette were apparently fast friends already; they'd settled down to sleep curled around each other._

_And he wasn't the only one suddenly sharing his space; Mitsukuni's new rabbit was already happily gnawing on carrots inside his room, and Hikaru and Kaoru had bought the largest and most opulent cage they could find for their new guinea pigs._

_And Mori couldn't say for certain, but he thought that he'd seen Kyoya slip the friendly female animal handler money and directions to his house. He was pretty sure that the stoic turtle had taken up residence in Kyoya's bedroom._

_Mori almost smiled as he thought of his own new addition, waiting for him in his room at home. He'd named his new friend Bear, because his black and white coloring reminded him of a panda. And as for the brown puppy that Haruhi hadn't been able to keep, well…_

_Mori named him Witless and hoped that he'd always be lazy enough to not care that his companion was a cat. _

_One of Mori's faithful female clients smiled at him over her plate of cake, vanilla with delicate pink roses. She asked him if he'd enjoyed his birthday._

_Mori thought of bitter chocolate frosting and soft lips brushing against his own. _

"_I'll never forget it," he said, and allowed his lips to curve in a tiny smile._

…

Tamaki had begun ranting before the story was even over. Haruhi tuned him out and glanced over at Mori. The taller boy offered her the barest hint of a smile, and brushed his fingers against his mouth. Haruhi's face flamed.

"-wounded, so terribly betrayed by my own friend, who I considered family-"

Hunni and Kaoru watched with silent fascination as Tamaki thrashed on the bed. He hadn't breathed since the beginning of his rant, and the younger Hitaachin kept subtly glancing at his watch to keep track of just how large his air tanks were.

Haruhi winced before looking over at Anne-Sophie, terrified to see condemnation on her boyfriend's mother's face. But instead, the woman looked terribly amused. She gave Tamaki's leg a consoling pat. Her eyes were still terrifyingly glassy, but at least the coughing had stopped.

"Sweetheart," she said, and she sounded very French somehow. "Really. What's a little kiss between friends?"

"But…he…they…Gah!"

Haruhi, cheeks still pink, didn't bother patting Tamaki's leg. She punched it instead.

"Knock it off!" she insisted. "It's not a big deal. Besides, you've all-"

She bit her tongue, and called herself seven kinds of idiot as Tamaki stilled so abruptly that he nearly fell off the bed.

"We've all what?" he asked.

Haruhi swallowed hard and looked around the room. Kaoru and Hikaru wore identical expressions of panic. Hunni was kicking his feet and staring at the ceiling, the picture of innocence. Mori was very still, as if he had sudden aspirations of becoming one with his chair. And Kyoya, for the first time since she'd seen him at the airport, was actually looking in Haruhi's direction. Behind his glasses, his eyes very clearly read _don't you dare. _

It was that reaction, that first spark of actual response, that spurred Haruhi to continue, even though the issue was a boggy one. Hikaru was looking at her too, actually focusing on her face instead of staring stubbornly at the wall.

Well, fine. She'd suffer a little humiliation if it forged the road to fixing things.

"You've all…it's not…you just…I'm a girl," Haruhi said helplessly. "I know we all ignored that in high school, um, for the most part." The blush she'd worked so hard to kill flamed back to life, filling her cheeks with color. "But that doesn't change what I am, and we spent so much time together, and, well, there were…accidents."

"Accidents," Tamaki repeated, his violet eyes narrowed.

Anne-Sophie was snickering. And Hunni's shoulders were shaking suspiciously, even though it was impossible to interpret his expression with his face aimed at the ceiling.

"Right." Haruhi sighed, and offered up a quick prayer that they'd all live through the next story. "Accidents."

...

_A/N: Someone told me that Mori liked animals in the manga, and thus this chapter was born. What kind of accidents could Haruhi have encountered with the Host Club boys to make them so embarrassed? Stay tuned to find out. Happy Reading!_


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N: Booyah. Twice a month. I'll try to keep it that way, I promise! As always, thanks a million to my magnificent readers and reviewers. You guys totally rock my world!_

_Do you see now, why I was so excited to write this chapter? Hee._

_I do not own Ouran High School Host Club, it belongs to Bisco Hatori.  
_

**Accidents and Answers**

"Right. Accidents."

Haruhi's face was already in flames, and she hadn't even started speaking yet. Bringing back memories that recalled warm fuzzies was one thing; spilling secrets that caused potentially terminal embarrassment was something else entirely.

But. Kyoya's eyes were still on her, so dark and indignant and _aware_, for pretty much the first time since he'd gotten here. And Hikaru was actually trying to _speak_ to her, silently and via his eyebrows. Granted, what he was trying to say was _Oh my God, why are you doing this to me_, but communication was communication.

Okay. So. If this is what it took to keep their attention, Haruhi would spill every embarrassing secret that they all liked to pretend hadn't happened during their high school careers.

"You can't get mad," Haruhi said, like a command, but really it was more of a plea. "You can't. Because you all did it once."

"Did what?" Tamaki asked, and his voice was uncharacteristically low and dangerous.

Haruhi swallowed hard, and stole one last glance at the crowd around her. She had solid plans to tell these stories to the bedcovers; if any of the boys were expecting eye contact during this embarrassment, they were _desperately_ mistaken.

She could be practical about just about everything, but when it came to anything personal, she was either perpetually clueless or completely in denial.

Mori was still doing his best to disappear into his chair via extreme non-movement. Kaoru seemed resigned to his fate, already flushed and floppy in his seat. Hikaru was actually cringing away, as if he expected Tamaki's self-righteous, romantically-charged fist in his face at any moment. Kyoya had recovered his ever-present cool, and was studiously not looking at anyone once again. Hunni was still the only one snickering in his chair, although he aimed it at the ceiling in a sad attempt to hide it.

Anne-Sophie herself was sporting a smile a mile wide. But Haruhi noticed that her fingers were knotted in the comforter, as if she were struggling to hold something back. Pain, maybe, or perhaps more of those dry and devastating coughs.

"Besides," Haruhi said, turning her attention to Tamaki with great determination. Anything to keep his eyes off those twisted fingers. "You did it too."

Tamaki's expression flipped from outrage to over-the-top offense.

"I did not!" he protested.

"Oh, Tamaki. Want to bet?"

….

_ It was rare for Haruhi to find one of the Hitaachin's alone. They were so constantly by each other's side, projecting their identical thoughts in stereo, that entering Music Room Three and spotting just a single red-orange head, tripped Haruhi up for the barest second. She took that moment to tilt her head, and study the Hitaachin standing on his own, staring out the window. _

_ He looked…softer, somehow. Not quite whole, or strong. _

_ But that wasn't something she worried about, because she didn't see Hikaru ever really leaving his side. Straying from it, maybe. But always coming back in the end. _

_ "Where is everybody?" Haruhi asked, shutting the door softly behind her as she strolled into the room._

_ Kaoru glanced over. His eyes were still soft with whatever world he'd been inhabiting while he'd been staring out the window panes. _

_ "Haruhi," he greeted. His voice was still thick with dreams. "They're in the back. Arguing over some costume, I think."_

_ Haruhi winced._

_ "Oh, perfect. What is it this time?"_

_ Kaoru shrugged._

_ "Tamaki wants to cosplay harem boys."_

_ "We do that every day," Haruhi muttered, and Kaoru choked on a laugh before continuing._

_ "Yeah, well, the outfits he ordered, without Kyoya-sempai's permission by the way, are a bit…revealing."_

_ The color drained out of Haruhi's face faster than water from cupped hands. More often than not, Tamaki's French side only made him interesting. But sometimes it skewed his sense of what was proper as well. _

_ "How revealing?"_

_ Kaoru scratched his forehead, brushing aside his bangs. _

_ "Well, I didn't really see them, but Mori-sempai almost had an expression, so I guess they're pretty bad. Kyoya-sempai started doing his 'you are so stupid that I must speak slowly and in complete sentences so that I don't smother you in your sleep' thing, and then the Boss started wailing, and then Hikaru and Hunni started laughing, so Kyoya-sempai marched everyone to the back room so that our clients didn't overhear through the door." Kaoru laughed again. "And now I guess they're arguing about how to alter them, or if we're going to wear them at all. Last I checked, the Boss is trying to convince everyone to wear them as is, and Kyoya is very politely ripping him to pieces."_

_ "I see," Haruhi said faintly, and offered up a quick and silent prayer that Tamaki would lose. "So, why aren't you in there, backing up your brother?"_

_ Kaoru rolled his shoulders_

_ "Won't change the outcome," he explained comfortably. "The Boss will flail, and Mori will say no without actually saying anything, and Hunni will bounce around and talk about how pretty the fabric is or something, and Hikaru will side with the Boss, because we're the only ones who don't care how much skin we show, and in the end, Kyoya-sempai will say no, and make it seem like it was Tamaki-sempai's idea."_

_ Haruhi laughed, because it was a perfectly accurate description, and rubbed at the back of her neck. _

_ "I suppose you're right," she said. "It's weird, though. Kyoya-sempai's always said that showing skin is popular with the ladies. Why would he change his mind now? How revealing could those costumes really be?"_

_ Kaoru tilted his head curiously at Haruhi's form. _

_ "Well, from the tiny peek I had," he crouched, startling Haruhi into stillness and a scowl. "I'd say that the costume shorts would end about here on you."_

_ And he stuck his hand right under her rear, flat out, like he was karate chopping the back of her legs. _

_ "You're slender, Haruhi, but you're not short," Kaoru continued, staring clinically at her legs. "So the shorts would definitely hike up on you, especially since your legs are so skinny."_

_ "Um."_

_ Haruhi's hesitant, half stuttering response forced Kaoru out of his job-related perusal of Haruhi's posterior. _

_ He looked up into her red-stained face._

_ And then down at his hand, still pressed against the back of her thighs._

_ And then back up into at her unhinged jaw._

_ And then back down at his fingers, resting so gently right under the curve of her butt._

_ Kaoru jumped up with a horrified scream that suggested that Haruhi's skin had set his hands on fire. Indeed, he began to wave them around like they were lit by the very flames hell, soaked in guilt and painted with the damning signs of girl skin._

_ "I didn't mean to!" he almost shrieked. "It's a fashion thing! Hikaru and I do it all the time when we're measuring the models! I promise! OH MY GOD PLEASE DON'T TELL THE BOSS THAT I FELT YOU UP BY ACCIDENT!"_

_ Haruhi couldn't help it. His face was as red as his hair, and he was all but leaping around the room, executing some sort of hand-shaking dance of shame. She let out a helpless shout of laughter and crumpled to the floor, clutching at her trembling stomach. She laughed until tears rolled down her face, and her cheeks were as red as the boy in front of her. _

_ Kaoru stopped dancing, and stared down at her, golden eyes wide and bewildered. Eventually, as she continued to laugh (almost as hard as that time they'd dressed in drag to one-up the Zuka Club), his shoulders relaxed and he dropped down next to her on the floor._

_ "You're not going to hit me, right?" he asked with a sheepish smile. _

"_No," Haruhi hiccupped, wiping at her reddened cheeks. "I mean. Other than Hunni-sempai, you're probably the only boy in the club that could touch me like that and not remember right from the get-go that I'm a girl." She gave him a bright smile. "I guess I'm kind of grateful for it."_

_Kaoru smiled back, and tucked his knees up against his chest, resting his chin on the upraised knobs. _

"_You're just…you're Haruhi," he said. "I guess I don't think of you that way." Most of the time, anyway._

_And then his face completely drained of color as he realized that there was someone very close to him that did._

"_Oh. Um. Crap."_

"_What?" Haruhi asked, bracing her weight comfortably behind her on her palms. "What's wrong?"_

"_Don't tell Hikaru that I got to grope you first."_

"_Okay. Wait. First?"_

…_..._

_ The weather outside was cold and wet, ribbons of ice dripping down the dojo windows, promising a frigid walk back to the apartment building. Haruhi had a mountain of homework and a yet to be made hot dinner waiting for her at home._

_ Why she was still allowing Mori-sempai and Hunni-sempai to keep her caged at the dojo, drilling self defense, was something she had yet to puzzle out. _

_ "You guys," she grunted as Mori-sempai hit her stick again, and grimaced as she realized that her sweat-soaked shirt was going to cling uncomfortably once it hit the cold weather "I really should get home."_

_ Her arms were aching, anyway. And she was going to have a veritable rainbow of new bruises from where Mori's stick had swung against her stomach. _

_ "Once more," Mori insisted, twirling his stick easily against his side. His face was as stoic as ever, and he hadn't even broken a sweat. _

_ "Yeah!" Hunni cheered from where he was perched on a stack of tumbling mats, swinging his little feet off the ground. "You can do it, Haru-chan!"_

_ "No, I really think I should-"_

_ "You let your guard down," Mori pointed out, completely monotone, and lunged._

_ In the confusion of a sudden mountain of man lugging a giant stick diving in her direction, Haruhi reacted on instinct. She brought her stick up, not to counter-attack, but to block Mori's stick from hitting her face. Instead, Mori's stick hit the wood resting crossways over her chest._

_ Haruhi's yelp of pain and embarrassment froze the occupants of the room in place. Mori's stick stopped where it was; Hunni's swinging feet paused mid-kick._

_ Haruhi shoved Mori's stick away, and pressed a subtle hand against her stinging chest. _

_ A long, long silence permeated the room. Haruhi looked down, her face flushed red and her lower lip caught between her teeth. Mori stood with his arm hanging limply by his side, his jaw unhinged and the look on his face expressing his strong desire to die. Or cry. Possibly both. _

_ Hunni tried. He really did. He stuffed a fist in his mouth and everything._

_ But, really. He'd never seen Takashi blush so bad before._

_ Hunni snorted, snickered, and then gave it up completely and collapsed back on the mats, squirming with laughter. _

_ Haruhi shot a swift, self-conscious glance in Hunni's direction, and then lowered her face back to the floor. _

_ "I'll, uh…I'll see you tomorrow. Thanks for the lesson, Mori-sempai."_

_ Mori-sempai didn't even nod in acknowledgement; his face was still frozen in an expression of mortified horror. Haruhi sprinted out the door, forgetting all about her aching arms and uncomfortably clinging shirt. _

_ Hunni continued to howl with laughter, even after the door slapped at Haruhi's back._

_ "Poor Haru-chan!" he giggled. "But, oh. Takashi, your FACE!"_

_ Mori, being Mori, couldn't find it in his heart to glare at his friend. _

_ But he thought about it._

…_..._

_ It was raining._

_ The rain was warm; nothing more than a summer shower, really. But Haruhi still ran through it like it was burning her bared shoulders. The clouds above her were black and swollen, and the noises they made were soft still, but obviously unhappy. _

_ The thunder would start any second, and Haruhi was still blocks away from home. _

_ "Should've checked the weather," Haruhi gritted out between teeth that had already begun to chatter; one of the first of her many fear reactions. "Stupid."_

_ Her grocery bags swung from her arms like pendulums as she ran, the plastic straps digging grooves into her arms. The first crack of thunder split the air, and Haruhi's instinctive jump and tiny gasp of fear caused more than one passerby to glance her way, concern written in their eyes. Haruhi's lungs began to twist and legs began to shake, slowing her progress into a panicked, wobbling run. The tears that she hated, but was helpless to control, flooded her eyes and rolled down her already wet cheeks as the second roar of thunder filled the air. Hyperventilating now, Haruhi barely registered the iron handlebar beneath her fingers as she threw herself up the stairs of her apartment building. _

_ There was a terrifying moment when a third thunderclap shook the air around her, and she couldn't remember which pocket she'd tucked her key into. She scrabbled at her jeans with fingers that felt fat and useless. By the time her hand closed around the tiny piece of metal, warmed by her skin and dampened by the rain, she was sobbing quietly. It took her three tries to twist the key properly, and then the door was swinging open, and she was collapsing on the little shoe carpet just inside. Her shopping bags hit the floor around her with consecutive dull thuds, and Haruhi managed to kick the door shut at her back._

_ Breathing hard, she curled up into a tight, defensive ball as the first slice of lightning split the sky, followed by another crack of thunder that seemed to rock the walls around her._

_ The closet. It was so close. The groceries would keep for awhile; no way was she crawling into the kitchen to put them away, not when the room boasted so many windows. _

_ Still quietly crying, Haruhi lurched to her feet, using the wall on her left as support. She'd only taken three steps when the doorbell rang. _

_ She seriously considered not answering. The thunderstorm was outside, after all, so why should she open the door and welcome it in? But then the solid sound of a fist hitting the door filled the room, followed by someone shouting her name. _

_ The only reason Haruhi was able to answer was because she recognized the voice. _

_ "Hikaru," she whispered, as the wild-eyed Hitaachin barreled through the tiny sliver she forced herself to open._

_ The older twin reached out and wrapped strong fingers around her upper arms._

_ "Haruhi," he said, his voice urgent. "I was out shopping, when I heard the thunder. I had my driver bring me here. Are you all right?"_

_ As far as reactions went, it was a bit over the top; he'd never really forgiven himself for Karuizawa. Haruhi was still shaking; she couldn't help it. But her tears were drying up. _

_ "I'm…okay," she whispered, only to cringe when another bolt of lightning illuminated the room._

_ Hikaru's expression turned fierce. _

_ "We're going to draw the blinds, and watch a movie," he firmly decided. "A really loud movie, with lots of explosions, and possibly an alien attack. Okay, Haruhi? You just go get dry, and…"_

_ His voice trailed off into tiny-voiced oblivion. Confused, Haruhi furrowed her brow._

_ "H-hikaru?"_

_ The boy's eyes snapped down, and then back up. He then proceeded to stare blindly over her shoulder, fixating on the wall behind her with great determination. His cheeks were bright pink. _

_ "You might want to…go change," he said, his voice barely above a squeak._

_ Haruhi glanced down. _

_ She'd chosen the white bra because it was practical._

_ It was also now completely visible under her shirt, which had apparently decided to turn transparent upon exposure to rain water._

_ "Um…," she offered._

_ "Yeah."_

_ She all but sprinted to her room._

_ By the time she returned, wrapped in a super soft, super thick sweatshirt, Hikaru had put the groceries away and started the movie. He didn't mention what he'd seen, and indeed, never spoke of it again._

_ However, his cheeks stayed pink until the ending credits rolled. Especially when the continuous thunder forced Haruhi to burrow up at his side. _

…_._

_ It was always better, in Haruhi's opinion, to study in a quiet environment. Sound of any sort could easily divert someone from their goals, and Haruhi had far too much riding on her schoolwork to risk her assignments with distraction._

_ That being said, she really didn't have a problem with Tamaki's piano playing during her designated study time. _

_ She'd taken to bringing her lunch up to Music Room Three during her open hour three times a week to cram in some extra time to read. The other days she ate with Hikaru and Kaoru down in the cafeteria, but these days were for books and half-bitten sandwiches as she bent over musty pages. _

_ Tamaki, being an upperclassman, had an open hour at the same time, and would often wander his way to Music Room Three to entice soft melodies from the piano keys. While Haruhi found most sounds distracting when she tried to study, Tamaki's music acted as a slow and sweet backdrop instead. It loosened her tense shoulders, and brought a tiny smile to her face as she perused the books in front of her. _

_ And Tamaki, typically unable to sit for more than thirty seconds without exploding into some sort of energy bomb, seemed to understand that Haruhi's study time was sacred, in a way. And, since the music was his own escape, and something he got lost in so easily, he hardly ever spoke during their time together. _

_ But today, Haruhi actually finished her work early. She gently closed her textbook, and rubbed at her bleary eyes with her fists. The soft swell of music still filled the room, indicating that Tamaki hadn't noticed her shift from studious to satisfied. He wasn't even looking at her; his violet eyes were fixed on the keys in front of him like nothing else could ever matter, or even exist. _

_ Curious, Haruhi eased off of the padded sofa seat and wandered his way. It was rare to see him so silent, and so serene. The music notes wrapped around her like silk, turning the air a gentle, shimmering gold. She watched him stoop so gracefully over glossy piano, his fingers moving effortlessly across the keys, his violet eyes half-lidded with pleasure When he finally coaxed the song to a stop, his palms sliding gently back, she smiled a little, and brought her hands together in soft applause. _

_ He jerked as if he'd forgotten her very existence, and half-turned on the bench to face her._

_ "Haruhi?" He squinted a little, absorbed her tiny smile. "You're sad?"_

_ The semi-glazed look in his eyes was a familiar one; she'd seen it in herself, every time someone forced her from her books, and in Kaoru, whenever he had a pen in his hand. _

_ "It's so beautiful, Sempai," she said quietly. "It reminds me of my Mom. I used to lie on the rug in the living room and listen while she played." She bent down, and brushed her fingers across the keys. "I think, if she would have lived, she would have put me in lessons. But after she died, Dad couldn't stand the sound of the piano, and it hurt too much to ask." Haruhi forced her smile a little wider, after noticing the troubled expression in his violet eyes. "That's why I'm so glad that you can play, Sempai. It's like listening to her all over again."_

_ For a moment, Tamaki could only stare down at his elegant fingers, still spread in a lazy sprawl across the keys, and absorb the ache in his heart. _

_ Then, he reached out, and tugged a startled Haruhi down onto the bench, her hip pressed against his. _

_ "It's never too late to learn," he said softly. "Here, put your hands like this."_

_ For the next fifteen minutes, Tamaki patiently guided his new pupil through the basic scales, repositioning her hands when needed, and demonstrating the correct way to move her fingers. When Haruhi plunked out the first scale, albeit very clumsily, on her own, Tamaki bounced to his feet and beamed. _

_ "Wonderful! You're such a fast learner, Haruhi!"_

_ Haruhi huffed out a laugh, and tried not to picture warm brown eyes, so much like hers, as she tapped the ivory keys. _

_ "If you say so," she said. "But my arms still feel awkward. Are they supposed to just stick out like this?"_

_ "Well, no. Here, hold them this way."_

_ Tamaki bent over, and placed his hands over hers, effectively demonstrating where her arms were supposed to lie. _

_ "Keep them close to your sides," he instructed. "As much as you can."_

_ "Okay, Sempai."_

_ He nodded, and leaned back. As he was pulling away, his fingers accidently brushed against Haruhi's ribs, right under her chest._

_ They both stiffened like someone had shot them from behind. Silence reigned the room once again, but unlike before, there was absolutely nothing comfortable about it._

_ And then, Tamaki began to wail. And flail_

_ "SWEET MAIDEN, I DID NOT MEAN TO TOUCH YOU IN SUCH A FAMILIAR WAY!"_

_ And Haruhi had to punch him over the head to shut him up. He didn't give her any other choice, really. _

_ When Hikaru and Kaoru burst in at the end of the hour, trying to locate Haruhi to accompany her to their next class, they found Tamaki face-down on the floor, muttering thickly about accidental molestation._

_ And a tomato-faced Haruhi, rigidly perched on the piano bench, determinedly plunking out a basic scale. _

…_._

_ It wasn't that Haruhi was afraid of being alone with Kyoya-sempai. As long as he had a decent amount of sleep in him, and his eyebrow wasn't doing that dangerous dance, she considered him actually quite amusing to be around._

_ But, really. Being told by the Shadow Lord to stay after Host club activities ended, because they had to have a chat, didn't exactly hint at happy things. And Hikaru and Kaoru's sympathetic winces as they'd walked out the door and left her behind hadn't helped._

_ Neither had Tamaki's pathetic whines and whimpers about 'Mommy' dealing with the darling daughter without 'Daddy' present. Kyoya had had to ice-glare him out the door. _

_ And now, they were just standing there. Kyoya seemed perfectly content to peruse his black book, leaving Haruhi bouncing on her heels and saturating in her discomfort. _

_ "Um," she offered, when she absolutely couldn't stand it anymore. "Kyoya-sempai? Was there something you needed? Because I really should be getting home."_

_ Kyoya glanced up in mild surprise, almost as if he'd forgotten her presence completely. Except Kyoya-sempai was always aware of everything._

_ Bastard._

_ "Ah, yes," he said. "Haruhi. I thought you might like an update on your debt."_

_ Her debt? Oh, right. That thing. The reason she was currently cooling her heels in Music Room Three instead of working on homework in the comfort of her own house._

_ "Sure, Kyoya-sempai," she said, and struggled up a smile from somewhere. "I appreciate it."_

_ "Follow me, then."_

_ He led her over to the table his computer rested on. Haruhi followed dutifully on his heels, and later regretted the fact that she kept his eyes on his back instead of the floor. The computer power cord snaked around her ankles and tugged, tripping up her feet._

_ "Gah!"_

_ Kyoya turned a tiny bit, just enough, at the sound of her surprise. If he'd kept moving, Haruhi might have missed him, but because he'd hesitated, she collapsed against him in some sort of impromptu tackle, taking them both to the floor. He'd pivoted enough to hit the ground with his back instead of his front, and Haruhi felt his arms fly up around her in surprise. At impact, her teeth clicked against something hard and her lips mashed against something painful, and the taste of blood tingled against her tongue. _

_ Haruhi took a moment to absorb the pain, and then became very still as she became aware of two very important things._

_ One: she was currently straddling Kyoya-sempai's hips, her palms braced against the ground above his shoulders and stinging from the sudden contact with the floor. _

_ Two: she was sort of, accidently, attacking him. With her face. Their lips were smashed together in something too painful to be called a kiss, and yet to intimate to write off as just another byproduct of the fall. _

_ Haruhi jumped like someone had pressed a hot wire to her spine, and scuttled off of him like some sort of drunken crab. Kyoya scooted back carefully, and slowly regained his feet. _

_ Crap, Haruhi's brain whispered. Oh, crap, I hope he doesn't kill me. At least I didn't break his glasses-_

_ Oh my God._

_ I just kissed Kyoya-sempai._

_ Haruhi stared up at the ominously silent older student and felt her cheeks fill with mortified color. _

_ He's going to kill me, her mind gibbered desperately, as Kyoya nudged up his glasses with what appeared to be near-homicidal calm. And it's Kyoya-sempai. They'll never find my body._

_ Kyoya opened his mouth, and Haruhi cringed, expecting to hear her death sentence._

_ "We'll never speak of this."_

_ And all of her breath heaved out in a relieved rush._

_ "Deal."_

…_._

"So, see?" Haruhi finished, still glaring at her stupid boyfriend. "You're just as guilty."

Of course, she was glaring at the floor. He'd gotten so annoying during the story telling, howling and squirming like an idiot, that she'd been forced to drop-kick him off the bed. Very carefully, of course, so as not to jostle Anne-Sophie.

The others were wallowing in various shades of red. Only Kyoya retained any semblance of self-control. But the vein in his temple was twitching dangerously. Haruhi thought that it might be the most beautiful response she'd ever seen.

"Gah," Tamaki's voice drifted up from the floorboards. "All of you…traitors…"

"Hey, you did it too, Boss!" Hikaru snapped, almost instinctively, and then froze. As Haruhi looked at him with a slowly spreading smile, he heaved an uncomfortable shrug, and turned his flushing face back to the wall.

_He'll be all right_, Haruhi realized, with great relief. She turned to Kyoya with a scowl. _Eventually. But this idiot is still impersonating a brick wall. Moron. I'm going to have to sit on him to get him to stay still long enough for me to explain._

Once again, Kyoya demonstrated his amazing mind-reading capabilities, and turned a dark look that screamed 'I dare you' in Haruhi's direction. Haruhi met it head on with a challenging glare of her own.

On the bed, Anne-Sophie muffled a series of short, rattling coughs into her cupped hands.

Tamaki was off the floor and by her side in two seconds flat.

"Mother?" he whispered, reaching for the palms she had pressed over her mouth.

The other boys tensed, their embarrassment pushed immediately to the back burner. Haruhi pistoned her body in Anne-Sophie's direction, reached out with tremulous fingers for the older woman's shaking shoulder.

"Anne-Sophie," she murmured. "Are you all right?"

"Fine," Anne-Sophie managed in between coughs. They stopped after a moment, and the woman settled back against her pillows with a sigh. Her face was noticeably paler than it had been before, and her smile was stretched and strained. "I'm fine. Just a bit tired, is all."

Tamaki shot to his feet.

"Then you should sleep!" he insisted. "We'll leave you be."

Anne-Sophie smiled and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Thank you, Darling," she whispered. She turned soft violet eyes, eyes that were already drooping, to the other occupants of the room. "But please bring your stories back tomorrow. I so enjoyed listening to them."

She sighed again, soft as a butterfly's wing brushing against a window pane, and then her lashes fluttered down to rest against her cheeks.

Tamaki clung to her hand for a moment longer, his eyes swimming with some great, unnamed pain, and then he released it, and arranged it carefully at her side. He moved out of the room like someone suffering from a debilitating wound, and the others followed cautiously, forming an uneasy circle around their leader as he collapsed against the wall right outside the door.

"I don't know what to do," he whispered, and he sounded so lost, and like he was bleeding out onto the floor, and all anyone could do was watch.

And the silence that followed his softly spoken words stretched on and on, because everyone around him didn't have an answer.

...

_A/N: In a situation this difficult, are there even any answers to find? And how can you hope to save your ties when everything else around you is falling apart? Stay tuned to find out. Happy Reading!_


	6. Chapter 6

_A/N: Boo. Late. My bad. But some questions get answered in this chapter, or at least hinted at. So, hooray! Thanks, as always, to my lovely, lovely readers and reviewers. I love you all so muchly!_

_I do not own Ouran High School Host Club; it belongs to Bisco Hatori.  
_

**Repairs and Revelations**

The silence was thick, and horrible, and helpless. It soaked the walls of the hallway like molasses. Fumbling, Haruhi reached for Tamaki's hand, and wished it was enough. The boy squeezed her fingers reassuringly, but his beautiful eyes stayed blank, and his face was still creased with defeat.

"Boss," the twins murmured uncertainly.

But then Hunni was there, standing in the middle of the circle, beaming bright flowers and sunshine smiles.

"I bet your tummy is empty, isn't it?" he asked. "Come on, Tama-chan. Let's eat!" Hunni's grin may have been innocent, but his chocolate brown eyes were serious and smart. "I'm sure you'll feel better after you have something in your belly."

For a moment, Tamaki could only blink weary eyes. But then, a small, gentle smile bowed his lips.

"All right. Thanks, Hunni-sempai."

Now more than ever, Haruhi wanted to tackle-hug the smallest host. For a moment, she wished she could possess his power, to make every situation better simply by being. Haruhi could offer honesty until Doomsday, and she could hold Tamaki's hand through this emotional time, but there was only so much that squeezed fingers could accomplish. With just a few words, Hunni could help more than Haruhi had with days of hand-holding.

As the Host Club made their way down the stairs, Haruhi reached out and caught Hunni's elbow in her hand. She gave it a brief, grateful squeeze, and the older boy beamed a bright smile over his shoulder.

"Come on, Haru-chan," he said. "You like noodles, right?"

Haruhi let out a small, semi-exhausted laugh.

"Right. Thanks, Hunni-sempai. I mean it."

Dinner was quiet, and might have been awkward, if not for the fact that everyone was too tired to care. Hunni and Mori made some sort of pasta dish with what they found in the kitchen, and everyone ate in almost silence. By the time they finished, Karou's face was resting on his folded arms, and Hikaru was carding his fingers through his brother's hair with one hand, while muffling yawns with the other. Hunni was snuggled against Mori's side, and blinking brown eyes rapidly in an effort to stay awake. Tamaki and Haruhi's eyes were bruised by dark, deep rings. Only Kyoya seemed unaffected, as always, sitting at the table with his arms folded and his face blank.

"Forgive me, Mes Amis," Tamaki said with a tired smile as Hunni slumped even further against Mori's flank. "It's been a long day for you, I'm sure. Let me show you to your rooms."

In the end, the twins were assigned the spare bedroom, because there was only one bed, and they'd never minded sharing. Hunni and Mori made do with the pull-out couch in the den, and Hunni made sure to brush off Tamaki's apologetic words by bouncing excitedly on the bed and exclaiming that it had been _ages_ since he and Takashi had had a sleepover.

Tamaki sacrificed his own room for Kyoya, claiming that he'd rather sleep in the chair by his mother's bedside anyway. Kyoya thanked him quietly, and with great composure, but Haruhi caught the way his hand fisted around the binding of his black book.

Once the house was quiet, and Tamaki had sent Haruhi to her own bed with a soft kiss and worn out smile, Haruhi slipped between soft cotton covers and rested her aching head on the pillow. But despite the fact that her eyes felt gritty and glued with fatigue, and her entire body ached and burned with the need to sleep, she couldn't shut off her busy brain. It rambled and ran, dancing circles inside her head no matter how hard she tried to silence it.

The montage in her mind was an uncomfortable one, mixing images from the past few days with scenes superimposed from her past. Pictures of Anne-Sophie bled and blurred, until her mother's face settled inside her mind's eye instead, horribly pale and drawn but still smiling bravely from her hospital bed.

_My sweet girl. Come on, Haruhi. Smile for me, all right?_

_ It's all right, darling. I promise that it's all right. _

Haruhi squeezed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth, trying desperately to banish the images she'd rather forget. But she couldn't stop the remembered words.

_Oh, my baby girl. Don't be sad. Goodbyes aren't so bad. Mommy doesn't want to leave you, Sweetie. But I'll always be with you as best I can._

Haruhi gasped and shoved her way out of bed. As her stomach tossed and turned, she stumble-ran her way to the nearest bathroom, dropping to her knees in front of the toilet with a desperate sound and emptying the dinner she'd eaten into the bowl.

She hated that her mother's words continued to race through her head as she heaved miserably. Tears of exertion and memory trickled down her cheeks, and she wiped at them impatiently once she was done. She staggered her way to her feet, and braced herself against the sink as she rinsed the acid from her mouth.

"Stupid," she mumbled, pushing her hair off of her damp forehead with an exhausted sigh.

"Are you having a flare-up?"

Haruhi jumped, almost banging her face against the mirror above the sink, and whirled around to the door she hadn't had time to shut. Kyoya leaned casually against the frame, clad in gray pajama bottoms and a white shirt, his eyes carefully blank behind his glasses.

"Kyoya-sempai. What?"

"A flare up," he repeated. "Is your ulcer bothering you again? Perfectly understandable, considering the stress of the current situation."

He tossed her the water bottle he'd had cradled in the crook of his arm. Haruhi caught it, her brow furrowed in surprise and confusion.

_We've been like this before. Is he going to toss me on a bed this time too?_

"It's not my ulcer, Kyoya-sempai," she said, unscrewing the cap on the water bottle. "But thanks for the concern." She took a careful sip, swirling the liquid around in her mouth.

Kyoya gave an almost shrug, and Haruhi recalled his words from the last time they'd spoken like this. At the Ootori estate, in Okinawa.

_Thanks. But I wasn't especially worried._

"Not that you were worried," she corrected, with a tiny smile. "Of course you don't bother yourself with things like concern, Sempai."

Kyoya didn't rise to the bait behind her remark. He only blinked, slow and serious, his eyes sharp behind his glasses.

"For someone who said that the situation wasn't impacting you directly, you certainly seem to be struggling with it," he eventually observed.

Haruhi absorbed the barb with a small, painful chuckle. Kyoya-sempai never did believe in pulling his punches, despite the fact that they were velvet-lined with intelligence and smooth subtlety.

"There's no need to be cruel, Sempai," she murmured.

Again, that shrug. He made a slight turning motion, as if he meant to leave, but Haruhi's next words stopped him cold.

"I know why you're being so distant, Sempai. Why you're pushing Tamaki away."

The look that Kyoya shot her was perfectly, composedly blank.

"I'm so sorry. I'm afraid I don't know what you're referring to."

"Stop it with the Host Club manners, Sempai," Haruhi said. "They don't work on me. You can pretend that you don't care as much as you want. But if that's really true, then why are you here? Why did you work so hard to pick everyone up and make sure they arrived as soon as possible?" She almost took a step forward, but thought better of it. "I don't believe that he suddenly means nothing to you. So why won't you talk about this?"

"There's nothing to discuss."

Haruhi's brown eyes narrowed stubbornly.

"Come on, Kyoya-sempai. Don't do this to yourself, or to Tamaki."

Kyoya's return comment was as lazy and uncaring as a yawn.

"What does my supposed behavior have to do with the moron?"

"I didn't ask him to come," Haruhi pressed on, ignoring his words completely. "I didn't _want _him to. But you can't push him away because he did."

"I hardly think I'm pushing him away," Kyoya almost purred, but his eyes had begun to glint dangerously. "Perhaps I'm just preventing intrusion into your new relationship, Haruhi."

"Kyoya-sempai. I'm not trying to take him away."

For a moment, the only sound echoing in the bathroom was the faint drip from the faucet.

"He was yours first," Haruhi continued, after Kyoya failed to speak. "I could never take your place. I would never want to." She searched his eyes solemnly; seeking for the emotion that she knew was there, no matter how hard he tried to hide it. "Sempai, he can need us both, you know. That's okay."

She thought the fact that he'd stopped denying was actually very encouraging.

"Haruhi? Are you in here? Are you all-" Tamaki rounded the corner to the bathroom door from his mother's room, and froze solid as he saw Kyoya leaning against the frame. "-Right?"

Violet eyes widened as Tamaki absorbed the tension in the small room. He glanced uncertainly between Haruhi and his best friend.

"I-I heard noises," he offered. "People talking."

"I wasn't feeling well," Haruhi said steadily, her stubborn gaze never wavering from Kyoya's face. "Kyoya-sempai came to help."

"Really?" Tamaki said with a small, hesitant laugh. He reached for Kyoya's shoulder. "Mon ami-"

But Kyoya ducked away from his hand in a movement so fluid it looked like water, and retreated from the bathroom. He disappeared down the hallway without another word, and Tamaki winced at the sound of his bedroom door shutting. His hands balled into helpless, hurting fists at his sides, and he bowed his head.

"Hey," Haruhi said. "It'll be okay. Kyoya-sempai will come around."

"I can't help the feeling that I'm hurting him somehow," Tamaki said sadly. "I couldn't stand that, Haruhi, couldn't bear my precious friend feeling pain because of me."

Haruhi came close and put a gentle hand on his back. She was still uncomfortable when it came to reaching out to others, and especially him, but he needed it so much more that she was slowly becoming accustomed.

When Tamaki turned to face her, his violet eyes were heavy with bewildered pain. He was still innocent to the darker side of having friends, had spent an entire childhood without the careful give and take of true connections. He cared so deeply for all of his friends, but he still had very little experience with what it meant to carry their burdens on top of his own.

"It'll be okay," Haruhi promised, resigning herself yet again to helping him bear his troubles as best she could. "We'll fix this."

A tiny smile bowed Tamaki's lips, and he nodded. Reaching out, he snagged Haruhi's hand and reeled her in, until her head was resting against his chest, and his chin was planted on top of her head.

"How are you feeling?" he murmured into her hair. "Are you all right, Princess?"

Haruhi huffed and lightly pinched his side.

"Don't call me that," she reminded him. "And I'm fine."

"Is it your-"

"It's not my ulcer," she swiftly assured him. "Really. Just…bad memories."

"I've told you, Haruhi, that you don't have to stay," Tamaki said, his voice pained. "I know that this must be hard for you, and I don't want to cause you any harm."

Haruhi scowled and pinched him again, not so lightly this time.

"Idiot," she mumbled into his nightshirt, over the sound of his startled yelp. "Where else would I be?"

She read his relief and gratitude in his silence, and the way his arms tightened around her waist. They stood silently in the bathroom until Haruhi's eyes began to droop, her exhaustion finally taking over now that she felt safe and the voices in her head had been silenced.

"Everything's so askew," Tamaki eventually whispered. "Nothing is the way it's supposed to be." He pressed his cheek against her hair. "Haruhi."

The wounded confusion in his voice, so similar to when they'd been standing outside his mother's room, broke something in her. She ignored her own comfort level and pressed a little closer, hugged a little tighter, because he needed it.

"I can't…guarantee anything. Not about your mother," Haruhi whispered, and once again hated herself for her unavoidable honesty. "But everything else," she promised fiercely when she felt him stiffen in her arms. "We'll fix it. I swear."

…...

By the time Haruhi wandered her way downstairs the next morning, the symphony of voices waiting downstairs informed her that she was possibly the last one awake. The strong scent of coffee wafted from the kitchen, as well as the sizzling sound of some sort of substance in a pan.

"Haru-chan!" Hunni greeted as she entered the kitchen, from his post at the stove. Someone had pushed a chair up against the appliance so that he could reach the burners. "You're awake!"

"You slept so long, Haruhi," Kaoru complained from the table. "We wanted to wake you up, but Kyoya-sempai said you weren't feeling well last night, so we let you sleep."

Haruhi shot a startled glance at Kyoya, who was seated at the end of the table, cup of coffee in hand as he studiously avoided her eyes. Whatever vulnerability he'd allowed to peek through last night had vanished; his walls were back, and as unbreakable as ever.

_One problem at a time_, Haruhi grimly ordered herself. _Deal with the easier one first._

She locked eyes on Hikaru, who had taken an unnatural interest in his plate of eggs the second she'd entered the kitchen.

"Sorry, guys," she said, scooting even further into the room. "I didn't mean to sleep so late."

She walked past Mori, who gave her a soft 'hm' of acknowledgment around his mug of tea, and settled herself very deliberately into the seat next to Hikaru. The boy stiffened, and shot her a brief glance out of shocked golden eyes.

_Not like him at all,_ she observed dryly. _Who'd have ever thought that I'd miss the flirting and the sneaking?_

"Here, Haru-chan!" Hunni chirped, setting a plate packed with eggs and toast on the table in front of her.

"Thanks, Hunni-sempai," Haruhi said, and couldn't help the smile that stretched her face at the sight of the diminutive host wrapped in a pink, bunny-bedecked apron.

She picked at her food in near silence, shoveling in more despite her protesting stomach after she caught every one of the boys carefully monitoring her intake.

_Seriously. It's been months. I'm perfectly fine._

"Good morning," Tamaki greeted, entering the kitchen just as Haruhi cleaned her plate.

"Morning, Tama-chan!" Hunni sang out, still situated at the stove.

"Morning, Boss," the twins added.

"Mm," Mori offered.

Kyoya briefly ruffled the pages of the newspaper hiding his face, but he didn't lower them.

"How's your mother today?" he asked around the business section.

Tamaki shrugged elegantly and rubbed at tired eyes. The lingering rings around them suggested that he hadn't had as much sleep as Haruhi.

"About the same, I think," he said quietly. "She did say that she'd like to sit in the garden today, and the doctor said that as long as she doesn't overdo, it should be fine. I need to go out and move her chair into the sun, and bring some blankets."

"We'll do it," Haruhi volunteered, jumping on the opportunity like a cat. She reached down and wrapped her fingers around Hikaru's wrist, causing the boy to go as rigid as a concrete wall. "You go ahead and eat."

She had Hikaru up and hustled out the door before anyone could protest. However, she did catch Karou's wink and raised thumb as the kitchen disappeared behind them.

The boys' diagnosis upon arrival yesterday had been completely accurate. The gardens were indeed elaborate, spilling starbursts of color that were framed by the rolling green hills at their back. Gentle winds ruffled the various bundles of pink and purple, blue and yellow and white, as the mid-morning sun encouraged them to unfurl even further. A little cement walkway led to an open space in the middle of the field of fluttering colors, where two padded benches sat invitingly under a large tree.

"Let's bring the chair over there," Haruhi decided. "It's mostly shaded, so we don't have to worry about damaging Anne-Sophie's skin."

Hikaru shrugged uncomfortably.

"Okay," he said, keeping his golden eyes fixed on the endless stretch of flowers.

The elder twin carefully dragged the cushioned lawn chair over by the benches, and then watched as Haruhi arranged the blankets she'd gone to fetch across the seat.

"I'll go tell the Boss-"

"Are you ever going to look at me?" Haruhi interrupted, and glanced up from the pillow she'd been fluffing against the back of the chair. "It's getting a little old, Hikaru."

The boy bristled instantly, and Haruhi indulged in a small, private smile. She understood him well enough to know that pissing him off was probably the fastest path to his true emotions.

"Well, excuse me for being uncomfortable," Hikaru snapped, and then immediately blushed and shut his mouth.

Haruhi straightened and clasped her hands behind her back, studying the Hitaachin in front of her with great solemnity.

"You've always needed someone to tell you when it's time to bring the emotions back in," she observed. "I've done it before, when you and Kaoru were pretending to fight, and I'll do it again. It's time to stop, Hikaru."

The boy buried his hands in his pockets and turned his burning face towards the lawn.

"I don't really understand all this fuss," Haruhi said, and her eyes were honestly confused. "I'm just a commoner anyway. Right?"

"You're Haruhi," he muttered.

She furrowed her brow.

"Yeah, but that hasn't changed," she reminded him. "My relationship with Tamaki hasn't made me any different that I was before."

"I didn't want to make you uncomfortable," Hikaru said softly. "Because of my…you know."

Haruhi rocked back on her heels as she considered this, brown eyes big and serious, and then leaned forward with a decisive nod and socked him in the upper arm.

"Hey," Hikaru protested, golden eyes flashing as he brought up a hand to the offended area.

"You're an idiot," Haruhi informed him. "I mean, really. When have you ever cared about making me uncomfortable before? Your feelings didn't freak me out, Hikaru. Just because I didn't return them doesn't mean that I didn't find them flattering."

Hikaru blinked.

"Flattering?"

The barest blush dusted Haruhi's cheeks. She _hated_ talking about her feelings. She usually left that to her flamboyant boyfriend.

"Just because I dress like a boy sometimes doesn't mean that I'm not aware of what you guys look like," she said, plowing forward in spite of her embarrassment. "You guys are attractive. I can appreciate. And I guess, it's nice, that you guys would look at me that way. I'm just me, so I don't really understand it, but it's still…nice."

She remembered Hunni's words from months back, when they'd accompanied her to the hospital.

_Don't worry, Haru-chan! It doesn't hurt at all to love you._

He'd said 'we'; he'd spoken for all of them. Which implied that all of them loved her in some sort of way. It had taken Haruhi weeks to come to terms with it; she just didn't understand why a group of such good-looking boys would attach themselves to someone so plain and simple, and who spent the majority of her time scolding them for stupid rich-people assumptions.

But her lack of understanding still didn't stop her embarrassed blushes, when she thought too hard about it.

"You never have been able to see yourself," Hikaru said with a sigh. He reached up a hand to rub at the back of his neck. "I guess it's not like I didn't see it coming."

"Well, I'm glad one of us did," Haruhi said dryly.

Hikaru barked out a laugh. It was more bitter than it was happy, but it was a start, and Haruhi was grateful for it. She rocked back on her heels again.

"You're an idiot if you thought that my relationship with Tamaki would change our friendship," she said, after a short pause. "Just because I'm with him now doesn't mean that I'm any less of friends with you."

She still hated it, spilling her guts like this. But the boys of the Host Club all had problems believing in permanence, and so they didn't accept it unless it was said out loud.

"I'm not going anywhere, Hikaru," she said. "I'm not going to disappear from your life." She smiled a little at his startled look. "You're stuck with me. You know? And if you keep acting so stupid, I'm going to chase you to whatever ridiculously fancy hole you're hiding in, and knock some sense into you." She let her smile stretch. "And Kaoru will help me do it."

Hikaru blinked once. Twice. Then, he tossed back his head, and started to laugh. Loud and rollicking, it stretched across the sea of flowers. Haruhi's eyes warmed at hearing it.

"Okay," Hikaru said. "Okay, I get it."

"Good."

Haruhi debated, then rolled her eyes, and went for it. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his waist. He froze for a moment, but Haruhi stubbornly clung, until his hands reached hesitantly around her back.

"Missed you, you idiot," Haruhi mumbled against his chest, and by the slight tensing of his hands, he heard her perfectly.

"Yeah." Hikaru blew out a deep breath that might have been an exhalation of relief. "Yeah, me too."

"Hey!" Kaoru's voice rang, bright and full of bubbling humor, across the lawn. "The Boss wants to know if everything's ready."

Haruhi and Hikaru jumped apart like Kaoru's voice had lit a fire under their feet.

"Yeah, we're set!" Hikaru called back, battling the blush on his cheeks.

"I hate to interrupt," Kaoru said sweetly as the pair approached the door. "You looked so comfy out there, after all."

"Shove it," Hikaru suggested.

Kaoru drew back in exaggerated offense.

"Oh, Hikaru! How could you say such cruel things, to your only brother who loves you so?"

Hikaru smirked before reaching forward and snagging his brother's hands, dragging the younger Hitaachin against his chest.

"I'm sorry, Kaoru. I say such stupid things sometimes. But I'd cut out my own heart before I'd ever say anything to truly hurt you."

Kaoru's eyes sparkled as he brought his palms up to frame his brother's face.

"Don't say that, Hikaru! I can't stand the thought of you in so much agony!"

"Oh, Kaoru, I'll never leave your side!"

"Hikaru!"

As they embraced, Haruhi rolled her eyes.

"Give me a break," she muttered.

It wasn't perfect. When they turned to grin at her, Hikaru's was still smaller than Kaoru's. And when Tamaki carefully wheeled his mother outside in her doctor-issued wheelchair, Hikaru avoided his eyes, as if he feared the older boy sensing Haruhi's hug on him.

But when they sat on the benches surrounding Haruhi's mother, joining her in the early afternoon sunshine, he settled himself on her free side, instead of on the opposite bench.

"Are you feeling better today, Miss Anne?" Hunni asked, cheerfully swinging his feet.

The delicate woman, swathed in shawls and blankets, gave the boy a gentle smile.

"Yes, thank you," she said. "I'm so sorry if I frightened you all yesterday. But I really am feeling much better now."

She was still clutching her handkerchief, and her face was white and waxy in the dappled light peeking through the tree leaves, but Haruhi chose not to mention this.

"I also have to thank you for preparing the meals in my absence, Mitsukuni," the woman continued warmly. "You are quite the excellent cook."

The boy blushed and beamed.

"Aw, thanks. It was nothing!"

Anne-Sophie smiled.

"I really am so glad that you're all here," she said. "Please, won't you tell me more stories, like you did yesterday? I found them quite…soothing."

"Of course, Mother," Tamaki said swiftly, while the others nodded in the background.

"Since you enjoyed Hunni-sempai's cooking so much," Hikaru said, and Haruhi started, before giving him an encouraging smile. "I guess you'd like to hear about the time he and Haruhi gave us cooking lessons. Remember that, guys?"

Just like that, Haruhi's smile vanished. As Anne-Sophie watched, and smiled, Haruhi leaned back on the bench and squeezed her eyes shut tight.

"Oh, _God_," she said, her voice soft and haunted. "The _horror._"

...

_A/N: What circumstances could cause Haruhi to remember cooking with such terror? And now that one friendship is on the road to being fixed, can the other be saved? Stay tuned to find out. Happy Reading!_


	7. Chapter 7

_A/N: I AM SO SORRY FOR THE MINI-HIATUS. Trust me when I say that it was neither planned, nor wanted. But, now that my soul is done being crushed by the harsh demands of REALITY, I can devote more of my time to you, some of my favoritest people. Thank you for all of you who have been so patient during this (WAY TOO LONG) stretch between updates...I love you all so very much, and really appreciate your continued support! You guys are absolutely fantabulous!_

_I do not own Ouran High School Host Club; it belongs to Bisco Hatori.  
_

**Ulterior Motives**

"Since you enjoyed Hunni-sempai's cooking so much," Hikaru said, and Haruhi started, before giving him an encouraging smile. "I guess you'd like to hear about the time he and Haruhi gave us cooking lessons. Remember that, guys?"

Just like that, Haruhi's smile vanished. As Anne-Sophie watched, and smiled, Haruhi leaned back on the bench and squeezed her eyes shut tight.

"Oh, _God_," she said, her voice soft and haunted. "The _horror._"

"Hey," Tamaki protested, shooting his girlfriend an elegant pout. "We weren't _that _bad."

Haruhi opened one eye to glower him into submission.

"Darling, what did you do?" Anne-Sophie asked, amusement ripe in her weakened voice.

Haruhi muttered something largely unintelligible, although the scattered words 'fire', 'freak shows', and 'seriously, what the _hell_ Kyoya-sempai' could be heard.

"Ah," Hikaru said, choking a little on the half-apologetic snicker in his throat. "Well. I guess you could say we weren't the fastest learners in this particular subject."

….

_"No."_

_ "But…but!"_

_ "No."_

_ "My darling daughter, your loving father respectfully requests that you do as he asks!"_

_ "…No."_

_ "DO YOU WANT DADDY TO STARVE? IS THAT IT?"_

_ "Sempai. You just told me that you have seventeen cooks on your family's payroll. I think you'll be fine."_

_ Tamaki, on his knees with his hands folded into an elegant appeal, released a strangled sound and toppled over sideways. Haruhi, who'd been enduring Tamaki's impassioned pleading for the better part of the afternoon with a twitching temple and increasingly sarcastic tones, simply rolled her eyes. _

_ "So unloved," Tamaki woefully informed the wooden floor, as the twins came up and prodded him with their shoe tips. _

_ "Come on, Sempai," Haruhi said, shaking her head in exasperation. "I've put up with a lot of your crazy schemes. But this one is just stupid."_

_ "It is not stupid!" In a flash, Tamaki was back on his feet, almost knocking the poking twins on their butts in the process. "You cook all the time!"_

_ "I don't have a kitchen staff with cooks from every continent," Haruhi reminded him dryly. "Look, Sempai. The odds of you ever having to cook for yourself are pretty slim. So it just doesn't make sense to teach you how."_

_ Tamaki was in his corner so fast, his actual movement went unseen. Haruhi sighed, and rubbed her hands across her eyes._

_ "Are you really so strongly opposed to it, Haruhi?" Kyoya asked, without looking away from his little computer screen._

_ Haruhi lowered her hands in order to stare at Kyoya with the proper air of incredulity. _

_ "Yeah," Hikaru agreed, creeping closer to the girl's side. "Aren't you the one-"_

_ "Who's all about the learning?" Kaoru finished, separating from his brother to cling to her open arm. _

_ Almost absently, Haruhi shook off the two boys wrapped around her, too caught up in her own bewilderment._

_ "What," she said. "You all want cooking lessons?"_

_ A multitude of excited bouncing answered her confused inquiry. _

_ "Learn how to cook commoner food?" Hikaru said. "Hell yes!"_

_ Kaoru added, "Everything you make for us is always so good." _

_ "Mm," Mori agreed, from his seat across the room. _

_ "I don't have any particular interest in learning," Kyoya offered. "As you say, there isn't much need. But at least it will stop Tamaki from whining."_

_ Haruhi furrowed her brow at all of them._

_ "I can help, Haru-chan!" Hunni sang merrily, skipping up on her left. "I already know how to cook."_

_ The girl in question blinked down at the grinning boy at her side. _

_ "Hunni-sempai. You do?"_

_ Hunni laughed._

_ "Well, sometimes my parents tell the cooks to stop giving me so many sweets. So I learned how to make my own!"_

_ Visions of Hunni wielding plates of expertly steamed shellfish at the Okinawa estate danced across Haruhi's memory. _

_ "Oh, right. I suppose I've eaten your cooking already, Hunni-sempai. Sorry."_

_ Hunni twinkled in her general direction._

_ "Don't worry, Haru-chan! Your cooking is so much yummier than mine anyway!"_

_ Haruhi flashed him a tiny smile, and then sighed._

_ "You're not all going to fit inside my kitchen," she pointed out. "So where do you suggest we do the teaching?"_

_ Kyoya tossed her an absent finger-wave._

_ "Not to worry. I reserved the Home Education classrooms a week ago."_

_ "Mommy is always so reliable," Tamaki beamed, bursting out of his corner, while Haruhi sputtered disbelievingly in the background._

_ "Tamaki-sempai's only been bothering me about this for three days! And…and how did you know that I'd even agree?"_

_ Kyoya turned his attention away from his computer long enough to give her a mock-reproachful smirk._

_ "Haruhi, really."_

_ "You're terrifying," Hikaru cheerfully observed, while Kaoru nodded his agreement. _

_ "Mm," Kyoya acknowledged, and he didn't exactly sound offended. _

_ "Fine," Haruhi recovered, because really, she should have known better than to ask. "When are the rooms reserved?"_

_ Kyoya gave his glasses a careless nudge as he double-checked a piece of data by cross-referencing it with his little black book._

_ "Twenty minutes," he answered, voice as lazy as a nap in the summer sunshine. "I assumed you'd hold out against Tamaki at least a little longer; you caved sooner than my calculations predicted." Actual humor flashed in Kyoya's dark eyes, and it was sort of beautiful, even though it was somewhat sadistically motivated. "I expected better from you, Haruhi."_

_ Haruhi fisted a hand in her closely cropped hair and squeezed her eyes shut for a brief second. _

_ "Hrrrrngh."_

_ Kyoya tapped away merrily for a few more moments, although his little black book was closed and properly stored, apparently content with the discomfort he'd caused, before powering down his computer. _

_ "Shall we go?"_

_ He swept by Haruhi on a tasteful little storm cloud of satisfaction. The girl opened one eye at his back and fumed in his general direction._

_ "Grrrrngh."_

_ Hunni laughed and tugged on Haruhi's wrist._

_ "Come on, Haru-chan! This is going to be super fun!"_

_ Haruhi continued to look doubtful, all the way from Music Room 3 to the Home Education classrooms on the first floor. _

_ Kyoya had reserved all three of the separate rooms, as the outside two contained only two stoves, where the middle room contained three. Haruhi turned to the cluster of boys to tell them to split themselves off, took one look at the instinctive groupings that just sort of naturally occurred, and shook her head with great vehemence. _

_ "No."_

_ "What, Haruhi?" Kaoru asked curiously._

_ "There's no way that I'm splitting you guys up according to the natural order," she clarified firmly. "Mori-sempai, you'll be fine on your own, but Hikaru and Kaoru, it'll take approximately thirty seconds for you to get bored with the whole cooking thing, and I am not getting nailed by whatever prank you manage to concoct with the cooking ingredients." In tandem, the twins crossed their arms and pouted. Haruhi made a face at them, before turning to contemplate her two remaining 'students'. "And Kyoya-sempai…I really, really don't trust you in a room with both Tamaki-sempai and fire without constant supervision."_

_ Tamaki's violet eyes widened in innocent confusion. Kyoya's sinister semi-smirk sent a chill racing down Haruhi's spine. _

_ "So," she said, shaking off the shiver. "Mori-sempai, if you could take Tamaki-sempai and Hikaru with you in the middle room there. You'll be able to keep those two in line, just make sure that you take the stove in-between theirs. Kyoya-sempai, you and Kaoru can work in the next room over. Hopefully, the joy you'd gain from blowing Tamaki-sempai sky-high makes your obvious desire to deep-fry everyone else in the Club a little less exciting." She gave a pleased nod. "We'll leave the third room empty for now."_

_ There were heavy sulks from at least three of the students as Haruhi shooed them towards their respective classrooms. Mori was as blank-faced as ever, and Tamaki was too excited about learning to cook to care about who his room-buddies were, but Hikaru and Kaoru pouted at the thought of separation, and Haruhi was convinced that Kyoya actually looked displeased about his botched opportunity to set Tamaki on fire. _

_ "I'm not going to wait around forever," Haruhi pointed out, voice dryer than dust, as the twins launched themselves into each other's arms. _

_ "Hikaru, promise that even though we're not together, you'll still think of me?"_

_ "Only of you, Kaoru, I swear. Not even this forced separation could banish you from my thoughts!'_

_ "Hikaru, I want to stay with you forever!"_

_ "Kaoru, I'll never let you go!"_

_ "Uh-huh," Haruhi muttered, and absently batted at a pair of pale hands that reached out as she walked by and attempted to make her the meat between two Hitaachin bread slices. _

_ "Haru-chan, I'll start with Kyo-chan and Kao-chan, okay?" Hunni called out as she scooted past to safety. _

_ "Oh. Don't you want to work with Mori-sempai, Hunni-sempai?"_

_ Hunni grinned, tucking his hands behind his back and rocking a little on his heels. _

_ "Takashi and I are going to be friends forever and ever and ever," he reminded her. "So, it's fun to play with other people sometimes, you know?"_

_ Haruhi's eyes softened, and she smiled a little. _

_ "Right," she said. "Okay. I'll get the other three started, and then we can switch around, if you want. Rotate in and out so that everybody gets to work with everybody."_

_ Hunni beamed at her._

_ "That's a good idea, Haru-chan!"_

_ Haruhi laughed, a soft, almost breathless sound. _

_ "Well, Mom always said that having more than one pair of hands in the kitchen could only make the food better. More lessons to share, you know?"_

_ Hunni just stared at her for a moment, huge brown eyes dark and uncharacteristically serious, as the other boys filtered into their designated rooms around them, laughing and, in Tamaki's case, chattering excitedly. Then, Hunni gave one great, unexpected bounce, and wrapped his arms around Haruhi hard enough to feel the soft, feminine swell of her hips through her figure-hiding jacket. _

_ "I like your mom, Haru-chan," he whispered, surprisingly fierce, into the embrace. "I think she's the best one ever."_

_ Haruhi, who'd been busy up until that moment trying to regain the air she'd lost during Hunni's spontaneous tackle, froze. After a long second, during which she catalogued the familiar pain that seeped across her insides like poison and found that it didn't hurt so bad, not with Hunni's arms around her, Haruhi relaxed, and let her chin rest on the soft blonde hair that just reached her jaw. _

_ "Thanks, Hunni-sempai," she whispered back, and then the boy was gone, bouncing into his room of instruction with a cheerful warrior's whoop. Haruhi shook her head, fought the fond smile that played across her lips like the most beautiful music notes, and strode towards her own waiting students. _

_ "Okay," she said, upon entering. "We're going to start with the basics."_

_ Tamaki, who had somehow managed to find the most ridiculous and elaborate apron in existences in the five minutes Haruhi had left him unaccompanied, executed some sort of excited shimmy against the stove. He grabbed for the nearest ingredient, which happened to be a bag of sugar, and waved it over his head like some sort of champion's trophy._

_ "You mean, like which ingredient goes where, Haruhi?" he asked._

_ "No," Haruhi deadpanned back. "You've never cooked a day in your life." She grabbed a large metal object from Mori's station and held it up. "This is a mixing bowl. You use it to combine ingredients."_

_ "Aw, Haruhi," Hikaru complained, golden eyes narrowed. "We know what a bowl is for."_

_ "Shut up," Haruhi suggested pleasantly. "I don't doubt that you know what a bowl is supposed to be used for. However, I also don't doubt that you could easily come up with at least fifty different ways to do something with said bowl that would force me to murder you, and bury your body under the kitchen tiles. Therefore, we're going to go over every piece of equipment, and its proper use." Hikaru looked like he was about to protest once again, but the way Haruhi held up her next object (a little forceful, and with just a hint of homicide), had him rapidly reshuffling his arguments. "This is a spatula. It is to be used for mixing purposes only, and certainly not at all to poke your fellow bakers."_

…_._

_ "Tamaki-sempai. If you don't stop throwing that sugar in the air, I'm going to set your apron on fire."_

_ "But look, darling daughter! It's like the beautiful first snowfall, and perfectly symbolizes the pure and beautiful strength of both my heart and my attractive facial features."_

_ "…Maybe I should have let you work with Kyoya-sempai after all."_

…_._

_ "Wow. Um. Okay, Mori-sempai. Can you tell me what you did wrong here?"_

_ "I burned it."_

_ "Yeah. That you did."_

_ "Burned the holy hell out of it!"_

_ "Shut up, Hikaru, you haven't even mixed anything worth baking yet. That's okay, Mori-sempai. I burned my first few cakes too. Why don't you…ah…deposit that somewhere and start again?"_

_ "Mmm." _

_ What sounded like concrete meeting the metal counter echoed through the room as Mori fulfilled Haruhi's request._

_ "Ah. Aha. Don't worry about that, Mori-sempai. Just get started on re-mixing the ingredients."_

_ "Mmm."_

…_._

_ "Heh. Well. That's…just lovely, Kyoya-sempai."_

_ It was a pink monstrosity, complete with ruffles and lace and the word "Mommy" stitched in red across the front. The only thing that even possibly deserved more attention was the glare of the person wearing it. _

_ "I didn't choose to wear it. The moron left it here for me, and then came by the room to make sure I had it on."_

_ Ah. So that's where Tamaki had wandered off to during his earlier bathroom break. _

_ "Ha. Aha. I see."_

_ "Stop laughing."_

_ "Hrrnk. Really. Aha. I'm not."_

_ "You will pay for this."_

…_._

_ "Tamaki-sempai, if you open the oven door every five seconds, the cake will never bake properly."_

_ Tamaki, bent at the waist with his nose pressed against the warm glass window, shimmied his butt in a way that had Haruhi rolling her eyes and praying for patience. _

_ "But, look, Haruhi! It's…fluffing! So exciting!"_

_ "If I gave you Silly Putty and a spoon, you'd be entertained for hours, wouldn't you?"_

…_._

_ "Hey. HEY! WHY ARE YOU JUST STANDING THERE, KYOYA-SEMPAI? YOUR CAKE IS ON FIRE!"_

_ "I'm aware of that Haruhi." Perfectly manicured fingernails were studied with practiced nonchalance. "And what would you be expecting me to do about it?"_

_ "ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME? PUT IT OUT!"_

_ "Hmm. I don't believe we covered that in our training."_

_ "GAAAAACK!"_

…_._

_ "Okay, Hikaru. Nice and slow now, all right?"_

_ "I got it, I got it. Jeez, Haruhi, you're such a nag!"_

_ "Well excuse me for being paranoid! Every time I hand you guys something different, you ALWAYS find a way to-"_

_ "Oh, hey, what does this little dial do?"_

_ whhhHHHHHHRRRRRRRRSPLAT! _

_ "That was totally AWESOME! Haruhi, you didn't tell me that this commoner mixing machine could be used as a cake batter explosion device!"_

_ There were several seconds, in which the rising lethal intent in the air slowly pierced Hikaru's cloud of awe and anticipatory imaginings._

_ "Oh. Oh, crap. Sorry, Haruhi!"_

_ "Yeah. Do that. Okay. I'm just going to go stick my head in the sink, then."_

…_._

_ "KYOYA-SEMPAI! NOT AGAIN!"_

_ "Must you shout, Haruhi? I find your constant overreactions extremely tiresome."_

_ "THE STOVE IS ON FIRE. IT'S ON FIRE. AGAIN."_

_ "Brilliant deduction. What an observant lawyer you'll make."_

_ "IF THE SCHOOL BURNS DOWN, I AM TOTALLY TELLING THE FIREMEN THAT IT WAS YOUR FAULT."_

…_._

_ "Wow, Kaoru. You really seem to have a knack for this!"_

_ The younger boy flushed with pleasure, and fussed over his cooling cake. It was a little brown around the edges, but perfectly acceptable for a first try._

_ "I had a little trouble understanding at first. But then, I realized that the recipe is like a story. It has a beginning, and an end, and the way the ingredients fit together is like the way the characters interact."_

_ "What a neat way to think of it!"_

_ The boy continued to beam, until his eyes suddenly skittered nervously to the side. He cleared his throat, and beckoned Haruhi closer with a crooked finger._

_ "Can you tell Kyoya-sempai to stop trying to blow up the kitchen? I think he's trying to sabotage my cake!"_

_ Haruhi shook her head sadly._

_ "Kaoru," she said mournfully. "Kaoru. I don't think he's faking it for some ulterior motive. I really think he's just that bad."_

_ "Wait, seriously?"_

_ A third voice entered the conversation, as smooth as silk, as polite as afternoon tea, and as subzero as the frozen tundra._

_ "You are aware that I can hear you, right?"_

_ "HARUHI, DON'T LET HIM EXPLODE MY CAKE."_

…_._

_ "Um. Mori-sempai? You set the timer, right? Like I told you to?"_

_ "Mmm."_

_ "Okay. So, ah. What happened?"_

_ "I don't know. It just came out like this."_

_ "I…see."_

_ "Wow, Mori-sempai, you could kill a person with this brick!"_

_ "SHUT UP, HIKARU."_

…_._

_ "Wow, Tamaki-sempai. You look really focused. Good for you."_

_ "I'm trying to figure it out."_

_ "What, the recipe? It's pretty straightforward, Sempai."_

_ "No, not that. I was just wondering how to move the Grand Piano from the club room to here. Such a work of art as my impending cake surely deserves its own background music, don't you think?"_

_ "…Oh, God. You can never live on your own. You'll be dead within days."_

_ "I bet if I called the movers now, they could have it ready before the oven timer goes off."_

_ "…Your thought processes literally break my brain."_

…

_ "HOW. NO. HOW."_

_ "You sound surprised, Haruhi."_

_ "I TURNED OFF YOUR STOVE. TURNED IT OFF COMPLETELY. I TOOK AWAY YOUR COOKING MATERIALS. HOW IS IT ON FIRE AGAIN?"_

_ "I really couldn't say."_

_ "YOU ARE A MENACE TO THE ENTIRE WORLD OF BAKED PASTRIES."_

…_._

_ Hours later, after the last flames had been extinguished, and the last bit of cake batter had been scraped off the ceiling, Haruhi and Hunni were found stretched out, face-down, on the floor of the empty third classroom. _

_ "Hey," Hikaru said, poking Haruhi with his foot, because he was too scared to accidently rouse Hunni-sempai if the boy was actually sleeping. "Now's no time for a nap. You have to come and tell us how we did."_

_ "It can never been unseen," Haruhi whispered, her voice a haunted creak of a sound against the kitchen tiles. _

_ "Haru-chan, I hurt," Hunni-sempai whimpered. "I hurt everywhere. And I think my eyes are bleeding."_

_ Hikaru stuck his hands in his pockets, and waited them out. After about five more minutes of nightmare-like shivering and cold sweats, Haruhi and Hunni finally peeled themselves off the floor. They stumbled into the middle classroom like the walking dead, where the rest of the Host Club had assembled to receive their grades. _

_ They went to Kaoru first, because he was the only one they could stand to look at without shuddering in remembered horror. His cake sat beside him, a proud and perfectly frosted display._

_ "You did well, Kao-chan," Hunni-sempai said, and managed a wilted smile. _

_ "Yeah," Haruhi agreed in an almost-regular voice. "I'll get you some harder recipes to work on. You've got a touch for it."_

_ Kaoru blushed and preened a little, fidgeting around his successful attempt._

_ "Hikaru," Haruhi continued, turning towards the older twin. His cake was sturdy, but sloppily frosted and a little lumpy from too-quick mixing. "Yours isn't terrible for a first attempt, but you need to be more patient. Each step takes time."_

_ "Don't be so quick, Hika-chan," Hunni agreed. "I super-dooper promise that your cake will be much yummier if you don't go so fast."_

_ Hikaru shrugged, more excited about the acquisition of his new mixing weapon than the cooking seminar itself. _

_ "Mori-sempai," Haruhi said, and turned towards the older boy with helpless hands spread wide. "I just don't get it. I really don't. I even sat with your for the entire twenty-minute baking time for one of them, and it still came out burned."_

_ Mori gazed stoically out across his little collection of charred and blackened cake-bricks. _

_ "Mmm," he agreed._

_ "Don't worry, Takashi," Hunni said, with a ghost of his former grin. "You'll always have me to make your cake for you."_

_ "Mmm," Mori said again, and it was much happier this time. _

_ "Tamaki-sempai," Haruhi said, turning towards the bouncing blonde. His cake was very artistically frosted, but sagging in the middle due to under-cooking. "Your problem is similar to Hikaru's. You get…a little too excited once the cake goes in the oven."_

_ "Every time you open the oven door, heat gets out," Hunni advised, nodding sagely. "And if you do that, Tama-chan, then the cake gets all sad and droopy because it's not warm enough to stand up right."_

_ Tamaki gasped, clutched his wobbly cake to his chest like a precious child, and transported himself to the furthest corner of the kitchen. Haruhi ignored him, too busy staring a little crazily at the final student. Kyoya had nothing to show, because everything he'd attempted to cook had been burned to ashes, including the cast-iron stove, which Haruhi still didn't understand. _

_ "Kyoya-sempai," she said in a hollow sort of voice. "I don't have any advice for you. Just. Please. Never bake again."_

_ "Ever," Hunni agreed earnestly, his blonde curls bouncing as he nodded._

_ A slow, satisfied smirk curled Kyoya's lips, and a sneaking sort of suspicion took root in Haruhi's stomach._

_ "Deal," he agreed smoothly. "And don't worry. I've already put in the order for a new stove to be delivered."_

_ For a moment, Haruhi could only blink, and wonder why that statement set off alarm bells inside her brain. And then she remembered Kyoya-sempai sitting at his computer for that extra few minutes inside the club room, tapping away, even though his little black book had been closed. _

_ "And when exactly did you place that order, Kyoya-sempai?"_

_ One perfectly formed black eyebrow rose majestically behind stylish and expensive glasses. _

_ "Haruhi, really," he chided her yet again, and the girl reached once more to rip at her hair._

_ "HRRRRRRNGH."_

…_._

"On purpose?" Tamaki asked, eyes wide, as he stared at his friend. "Mommy Dear, you set all of those cakes on fire on purpose?"

"That was never proven," Kyoya smoothly countered, and it was good because it was communication, but Haruhi briefly considered resurrecting her old hair-tugging habit as she realized that Kyoya refused to look at Tamaki as he said it.

"All those cakes," Hunni whispered, and he sounded very, very traumatized. "Wasted."

"Don't be sad, Mitsukuni," Anne-Sophie said, and Tamaki fidgeted protectively at the weak, breathy quality of her voice. "Not everyone has the domestic touch."

"Not for baking anyway," Kaoru jumped in, before the boss could inquire after his mother's health, and break the spell they were trying to weave. "But some domestic duties are universal. Like babies."

Across the circle, Haruhi saw a still determinedly stand-offish Kyoya stiffen. It was hardly for more than a second, and only really noticeable in his shoulders for that brief second, but she'd been watching him intently, and so to her it was as bright as a neon sign.

_Gotcha_, she thought, and gave a grim little smile.

...

A/N: What about this particular memory can make the ever-masked Kyoya flinch? Can Haruhi and the gang get to him before he grows even colder? Stay tuned to find out. Happy Reading! (And any "Asylum" fans out there...keep your eyes especially peeled).


	8. Chapter 8

_A/N: So, I've been sitting on this chapter for about two weeks. Because the beginning was fine, came out all nice. And then the end. And Kyoya would. Not. Talk. To. Me. Seriously. Emotionally stunted jerk. And then the website wouldn't let me upload it. Hrrrrrngh...anger. But here it is! And it's pivotal (like...really pivotal). Anyone who's interested in an explanation as to my writing decisions, I'll tack one on to the end of the chapter. _

_Much love, as always, to my bb's, you wonderful readers and reviewers. You never fail to make me smile. Even you lurkers...I love you in your own special way!_

_I do not own Ouran High School Host Club; it belongs to Bisco Hatori. **  
**_

**The Breakdown**

"Don't be sad, Mitsukuni," Anne-Sophie said, and Tamaki fidgeted protectively at the weak, breathy quality of her voice. "Not everyone has the domestic touch."

"Not for baking, anyway," Kaoru put forth, before the boss could jump in and inquire after his mother's health, and break the spell they were trying to weave. "But some domestic duties are universal. Like babies."

Across he circle, Haruhi saw a determinedly stand-offish Kyoya stiffen. It was hardly for more than a moment, and only really noticeable in his shoulders for that brief second, but she'd been watching him intently, and so to her it was as bright as a neon sign.

_Gotcha_, she thought, and gave a grim little smile.

"Babies?" Anne-Sophie repeated, and one delicate eyebrow rose magnificently on her face as she turned to address her son. "But Ma Petite, you told me that you and Haruhi had not yet-"

"NO MOTHER!" Tamaki shrieked, and leapt off the bench like it had burned him.

Haruhi watched the rest of the club members tilt gracefully in their seats, so as to avoid Tamaki's flailing dance of denial, and wondered if her head might actually explode due to all the blood rushing to fill her face.

"I have cousins," she managed, around a tongue that felt thick and horrified in her mouth. Tiny Tamakis. With fluffy blonde hair and endless amounts of dramatic energy, and pouts perfected in the womb. Oh, _God_. "Little ones. They live in town. And back then, before I left for college, I was the perfect babysitting candidate."

…...

_"Dad. You want me to do what?"_

_ Haruhi stood in the massive pavement parking circle that waited just outside the front doors of Ouran Academy. Students were dropped off each morning and picked up each afternoon by their luxurious family cars. The Fujioka five-seater, small and gray and sedate, looked horribly out of place amongst the endless rows of shiny black limousines._

_ Behind the wheel, Ranka fluttered like an apologetic butterfly, wafting soft perfumes and helplessly batting heavily caked eyelashes. _

_ "I'm so sorry, Sweetie," he offered. "But I told your Aunt Yuki that I'd watch the baby today."_

_ Haruhi frowned contemplatively at the car seat strapped in the back. _

_ "So, why can't you do it?"_

_ Ranka danced fretful fingers across the steering wheel in order to properly illustrate his dismay. _

_ "My boss called," he explained. "Half of the staff on today's rotation got food poisoning from whichever restaurant they called for lunch. I don't have a choice, Honey. I have to go in."_

_ "Okay," Haruhi said. "But, Dad. I don't think I can leave. The final bell just rang; I've got Host Club in fifteen minutes."_

_ "You can't duck out for one day, even for a family emergency?"_

_ "I could," Haruhi corrected darkly, and wondered how much Kyoya would add to her debt for the miss. _

_ Ranka waved one perfectly manicured hand. _

_ "It's not the end of the world, Haruhi," he said. "After all, the Host Club is really more of a giant tea party, right? A place to practice etiquette?"_

_ Haruhi thought of her fellow female classmates, probably the farthest thing from refined as they swooned and screamed over both the subtle (Kyoya, Mori, Mitsukuni) and the blatant (Hikaru, Kaoru), and even the obscene (Tamaki) flirting that took place in Music Room Three every afternoon._

_ "...Uh-huh."_

_ "So, it'll be mostly girls there, right?" Ranka continued happily, blissfully unaware of his daughter's doubtful tone. _

_ "...Well, I guess that's true."_

_ "Then you have nothing to worry about," Ranka said, and tipped one pink-shadowed eyelid in a wink. "Girls love babies. It's instinctive. Trust me; you bring that baby up to your little tea party, and no one will complain."_

_ Haruhi thought of Kyoya's face, which could express both polite interest and sweetly homicidal intent simultaneously, and sighed. _

_ "Okay, Dad," she conceded, and resigned herself to a politely phrased, "I am adding to your debt based on your being addled with infancy today, Haruhi'. _

_ With the ease of someone who had run this ring before, Haruhi reached into the backseat and detached the car seat. Looping it over her arm, she accepted the diaper bag her dad passed through the window and hooked it over her shoulder. _

_ "There's a bottle in there," Ranka advised. "I fed the baby before I left, so you've got about two hours."_

_ "Got it," Haruhi said._

_ "Thanks, Sweetie!" Ranka called cheerfully as his daughter turned resolutely towards the school. "Have fun!"_

_ Haruhi grumbled all the way to Music Room Three, and ignored the strange looks she received from the straggling students as best she could. _

_ She tossed a blanket protectively over the baby's face before opening the door, and irritably batted away the rose petals that rushed against her own head._

_ "Haruhi!" Tamaki cried before she'd taken two steps inside the room. "You're late, Darling Daughter! Daddy was starting to get-"_

_ He screeched to halt, mid-bounce, as his violet eyes fell on the carrier crooked in Haruhi's elbow. _

_ "Sorry about this, Sempai," Haruhi started with a sigh. "My Dad stopped by. I've got a bit of a family emergency."_

_ Hikaru, who's interest had been drawn by Tamaki's shocked stupid-surprise, wandered over. He tilted his head curiously at the bundle swaddled inside the seat. _

_ "Haruhi," he asked, taking an absent bite out of the banana he'd had left over from lunch. "What the hell is that?"_

_ "It's a baby, Hikaru."_

_ "Uh-huh. Why is it here?"_

_ Haruhi rolled her eyes, and set the car seat on the floor. With quick, practiced movements, she unbuckled the baby and cuddled the blankets in her arms. _

_ "This is my cousin," she announced to the room. "Misaki. She's six months old. My dad said he'd watch her today, but there was an emergency at the bar, and he had to go in. He brought her to me instead." Stroking an absent finger across the chubby baby's tightly curled fist, she turned to face the Shadow King. "I can leave, Kyoya-sempai. If you think she'll be in the way."_

_ "BABY!"_

_ "TAKASHI, LOOK, SHE'S SO CUTE!_

_ Ignoring Tamaki and Hunni's joyful screams completely, Kyoya nudged his glasses up his nose, looking for all the world as unruffled as if Haruhi brought in babies everyday. For a quiet moment, he and the owl-eyed, rosy-cheeked baby regarded each other silently from across the room. _

_ Then, Misaki let out a bubbling giggle of delight, and reached her chubby arms in Kyoya's direction. _

_ "Enchanting," Kyoya remarked dryly, before turning his attention back to Haruhi. "As much enjoyment as I get from constantly ringing up your debt, Haruhi, your request list today is almost twice its normal size. I'm afraid it would simply be bad for business to disappoint all the girls who came to see you."_

_ "Right," Haruhi sighed. "Misaki can sit by me, then, in her car seat. She won't be too much trouble; I'll have to feed her once, and then she'll probably fall asleep."_

_ "STAY IN HER CAR SEAT? DADDY POSTIVELY FORBIDS YOU TO HIDE THAT BEAUTIFUL BABY AWAY SO HARSHLY!"_

_ "It would hardly be hiding her, Sempai," Haruhi said dryly, giving Misaki an absent bounce. The baby cooed, delighted by the movement. "She can see from the car seat."_

_ Tamaki wailed, and shook his head emphatically._

_ "You didn't really think you'd escape without the Boss wanting to hold the baby, did you?" Hikaru asked under his breath._

_ "I hoped," Haruhi muttered back, while Kaoru snickered in the background. "Do you want to hold her for a little while, Sempai?" she asked, raising her voice in a very resigned sort of way. "She won't be hidden then, right?"_

_ Tamaki was across the room in less than two seconds. It was really quite amazing. Even Misaki blinked, obviously impressed. _

_ "Mind her head," Haruhi instructed, as she carefully passed the slightly squirming bundle into Tamaki's waiting arms. "She's still too little to support it very well."_

_ For one very confusing moment, during the exchange, the backs of Haruhi's hands got trapped by Tamaki's upturned palms. Their joined hands held the weight of the baby together, and Tamaki glanced up to beam a bright grin in Haruhi's direction._

_ Something weirdly warm and unrecognizable bubbled in Haruhi's stomach. She quickly removed her hands and stepped back, leaving Misaki to furrow her tiny brow at the strange face now looming above her. _

_ Tamaki melted like a big puddle of goo, his lavender eyes going liquid, and began to coo nonsense syllables in Misaki's direction._

_ Hunni popped up at Tamaki's side, and aimed a big, beaming smile at the baby. _

_ "Me next, Tama-chan!"_

_ Haruhi just sighed. _

_ An hour later found Music Room Three in even more of a flutter than usual. As it usually was, Ranka's womanly insight had been spot on. The girls were in an uproar over the Host Club's tiniest visitor. When Tamaki had held her, alternately bouncing the baby and coming up with sticky sweet words about how he couldn't wait for the right woman to give him a baby of his own, the girls all but erupted into effervescent explosions of estrogen. _

_ When Hunni held her, pulling faces to make Misaki laugh and dangling Usa-chan over her head, the clients almost died from the sheer cute. _

_ When the twins awkwardly juggled the baby between them, helpless smiles mingling with the obvious discomfort in their eyes, the girls sighed over bad boy hearts being melted by rosy cheeked babies. _

_ Now, Mori sat serenely, Misaki balanced on his broad lap. She'd started to fuss in Kaoru's hands, and the Hitaachin had gone into a tight-lipped panic. Haruhi had been on her way over, when Mori had intercepted, scooping Misaki up with ease. _

_ "Hungry," he'd diagnosed to the mildly gob-smacked Haruhi. _

_ She'd handed over the bottle without a word. Mori had cradled Misaki in the crook of one arm, and fed her without ever pausing in his constant perusal of Hunni's conversation. After she'd finished, Mori had flipped Misaki gently on her stomach in his lap, patting lightly at her back to make her burp. Once she'd been relieved, Misaki had pressed her face against Mori's knee, and consented to sleep with a soft, happy hiccup. _

_ Haruhi volunteered to make the next batch of instant coffee, deathly afraid that if she didn't occupy her hands, she'd join the herd of swooning, cooing fangirls lurking behind Mori's chair. _

_ "I'll take her, Mori-sempai," she offered, once she was sure she'd reigned in her own admiration. "She won't be able to sleep well with all this light. I'll just tuck her away in the back room."_

_ "But, but, what if she wakes up?" Tamaki asked fretfully, performing an anxious dance behind Haruhi as she scooped her snoozing cousin into her arms. "What if she starts to cry? Sweet Haruhi, surely you won't sequester that poor child so cruelly?"_

_ Haruhi rolled her eyes, patting gently at Misaki's warm back as she rocked her cousin across the room. _

_ "She'll be fine, Sempai," she said. "I'll leave the door open. Trust me; if this baby starts crying, everyone will be aware of it."_

_ The girls cooed quiet goodbyes to the baby, blowing soft kisses in her direction as Haruhi walked past. Haruhi smiled at them gratefully; they really had put up with the little trespasser quite well. _

_ Inside the back room, Haruhi dimmed the lights. She gave in to the urge to wrap Misaki a in quick cuddle, inhaling the soft and milky sweet scent of baby from her feather soft cheek, before she tucked her cousin into the waiting car seat. _

_ "Shh," Haruhi murmured, when Misaki stirred and made fretful noises. "Go to sleep." She cast a rueful glance at the open door, where Tamaki, Mori, and Hunni were all hovering with varying degrees of visible anxiety. "I've got other kids to corral."_

_ She settled the car seat on the soft couch and gently herded the peanut gallery back to their duties, leaving the door wide open in case Misaki woke up. But the baby was truly tuckered out from all the over-stimulation she'd received, and spent the remainder of the Host Club hours snoozing away in her seat. _

_ "Thanks for the help, guys," Haruhi said, once the last client wandered her merry way out the door. She was bent over the table she'd seen her last client at, her head pillowed on her arms. "It was great of you to let Misaki stay."_

_ "Don't worry, Haru-chan!" Hunni called cheerfully, kicking his feet aimlessly against his chair as he enjoyed his after-club cake. "Your cousin is super cute!"_

_ Haruhi smiled at Mori's soft 'Mm' of agreement. _

_ "Thanks, Hunni-sempai. I guess she is."_

_ "The ladies loved her," Hikaru pointed out from his ungainly sprawl on a nearby sofa. "And I don't think the Boss' feet touched the floor for one second after you unbuckled her from that little seat thing. Kyoya-sempai's probably typing up a flow chart of your cousin's productivity as we speak."_

_ Haruhi chuckled, because yeah, she could pretty much see that happening._

_ "Where is Kyoya-sempai?" she asked, as the older boy failed to offer his dry and distinct opinion of Hikaru's assumptions of his activity. "And Tamaki-sempai, I haven't heard him flailing for at least five minutes."_

_ "Kyoya-sempai went into the back room to get his computer," Kaoru offered, running an absent hand down his brother's leg. They'd been sitting side by side on the sofa, and after the last girl had shut the door behind her, Hikaru had flopped over like a lazy cat, resting his head on one cushion and tossing his feet over Kaoru's lap on the opposite side. _

_ "Tama-chan went to the back room too," Hunni added. "I think he's poking at the baby."_

_ Haruhi rolled her eyes and climbed to her feet. _

_ "I'd better go rescue her, then. I needed to check on her anyway." A dark scowl rippled across her face. "If Sempai woke her up, I may have to knock his head against the wall."_

_ Kaoru snorted and shoved Hikaru's legs off his lap. His brother made a sulky, sleepy sound of protest, and buried his head in the couch pillow._

_ "I'll go with you," he said. "I left my notebook back there."_

_ They left Hikaru dozing, Hunni devouring, and Mori slouched in his chair. _

_ The lights were still dimmed in the back room. Haruhi could see them through the open door. But as she prepared to enter, slender fingers caught her arm and tugged her to a stop. Bewildered, she turned to frown at Kaoru, who shook his head with a mischievous smile and gestured to the entryway. _

_ Haruhi allowed Kaoru to maneuver her against the wall, and strained to hear the sounds he'd indicated. It was Tamaki, and Kyoya, having a soft conversation. _

_ "Did you wake the baby, Mommy Dear?"_

_ "No," Kyoya answered, and he sounded mildly harassed. "I came to get my computer, and when I turned around, she was staring at me. When I tried to keep moving, she started to cry."_

_ "Oh, she's just lonely. Aren't you darling? You just wanted some attention from Mother Kyoya."_

_ Behind her, Kaoru snickered at the cooing, kind of ridiculous quality of Tamaki's voice. Haruhi smiled as well, but mostly because she could imagine the look on Kyoya's face in response to it. _

_ The faint sound of buckles being undone drifted through the door._

_ "Come on, darling. Let's get you out."_

_ "Perhaps Haruhi would not approve of you manhandling her cousin without her permission," Kyoya said, and his voice was very dry. _

_ "Nonsense. Misaki-chan adores me. Don't you, Ma Petite?"_

_ A happy coo validated his words. Then the coo escalated into a loud squeal, and Kaoru gave a start at her back._

_ "Happy sound," Haruhi assured him quietly. _

_ There was a short, awkward pause inside the room, in which Misaki continued to squeal, and the boys said absolutely nothing at all. _

_ Then, Tamaki's voice; "It appears she wants you to hold her, Mommy Dear."_

_ "I decline." Kyoya's answer was flat, and final. _

_ And Tamaki rolled right over it._

_ "No need to be afraid! I assure you, she's quite sturdy!"_

_ "Tamaki. I believe I said-"_

_ "Here you go! Mind her head!"_

_ Misaki's delighted giggle, and the sound of a soft, hissed breath, obviously drawn in through clenched teeth, whispered through the door. _

_ "See? She's not so fragile. And look how much she likes you!"_

_ It was apparently true. Misaki's blissful babbling came across loud and clear. _

_ Behind her, Kaoru was whispering, his breath hitching over barely contained chuckles; "Kyoya-sempai's holding the baby...I would pay so much money...Hikaru would laugh himself sick..."_

_ Haruhi gently elbowed him to shut him up, although the grin splitting her own face couldn't be denied. _

_ "Haruhi, we have to look," Kaoru urged in whispers. "We will __**never get this chance again**__."_

_ The immediate and instinctive counter-argument that bubbled to Haruhi's lips was that they couldn't intrude, not on this, and it caused a frown of confusion to crease her face. Intrude? That was her own cousin in there; she had every right to walk in. _

_ So she ignored her own internal alarm bell, and motioned Kaoru forward. They crept the last inches toward the door, and peered inside around the frame. _

_ It was exactly what they'd expected to see._

_ And at the same time, somehow, ridiculously more. _

_ Kyoya was indeed cradling the baby. Misaki was balanced against his chest, and cooing cheerfully as she patted at his face with little hands, obviously enraptured by his glasses. Kyoya's arms were stiff and somewhat strained, and the way he held her without really holding her was nothing short of awkward (not that Misaki seemed to mind, or even notice). His face was straight and set, with only the barest hint of discomfort in the downturn of his lips. _

_ But, while that image in itself was worth a second look or two, it wasn't what made the picture so arresting._

_ Tamaki's hands were pressed, one against Kyoya's upper arm, the other against his opposite shoulder, showing him second-hand how to hold the baby. He tugged gently at Kyoya's stance, trying to adjust him to comfort. _

_ And wherever his hands touched, Kyoya's body relaxed. Immediately. _

_ Eyes wide, Haruhi turned to Kaoru, to affirm the significance of what she was seeing. And she was thankful that it was this Hitaachin standing at her side, because his solemn face indicated that he definitely saw what she did. Hikaru would have been oblivious. Hunni might have seen it, but he'd spoil it by bubbling over with the joy of developed bonds. And Mori wouldn't have appreciated the significance unless Hunni pointed it out. _

_ But Kaoru saw people. It was what made his stories so compelling; his golden eyes could read the underneath of people's emotions. And he saw what was so important now. _

_ There was trust in Kyoya's relaxation; a calm and contented air that he never let outsiders see. That trust betrayed just how important Tamaki was. Haruhi had heard it once, in his voice when Kyoya had regaled her with the story of how he and Tamaki had met. And the signs of it were there, in Kyoya's fierce protectiveness of his king. _

_ But it was never so blatant as it was now, so obvious. _

_ Haruhi might have watched them for hours, lost in the spin of her own brain reeling with realizations. But Misaki chose that moment to rest her chin trustingly on Kyoya's shoulder, and her eyes tracked behind him, over to the door. She let out a loud, happy screech upon seeing Haruhi's familiar face. _

_ "Haruhi!" Tamaki cried, as he always did upon seeing her. And his hands fell away from Kyoya's arms. _

_ And everything in Kyoya that had relaxed went as tight as knots. _

_ His face was perfectly composed when he spun in Haruhi's direction. He handed over the baby with an air of nonchalance, as if he cradled toddlers every day of the week. But when their skin brushed, nothing in him relaxed, and that was just as telling as the words he didn't say._

…_..._

Later, after Anne-Sophie had been tucked back into bed, exhausted by the short jaunt outdoors, Haruhi found herself in the midst of an impromptu pow-wow at the pretty kitchen table.

"Hikaru, Kaoru, are you sure?" she asked. "What you're offering is really generous-" And Haruhi was proud, so proud of them for it, "But it is your birthday. You have to spend it how you want."

"We know what we want," Hikaru insisted. "We're not going to ask the Boss to leave Anne-Sophie for a party arranged by our parents and full of people we don't know."

"We want to celebrate with our friends," Kaoru added quietly. His hand was twisted tight with Hikaru's on the table top. "Our real friends. We're all together now; it makes sense."

Arguments could be made against the 'all together now' portion of Kaoru's statement; Kyoya had excused himself rather frigidly as soon as Kaoru had finished recounting the Misaki story and hadn't come down from his room since. And while Tamaki had accompanied the other Club members to the table, he'd left almost immediately after accepting Hikaru's request, his eyes bright and brimming with emotion. The soft sounds of piano music had drifted down the stairs moments later, something sweet and serene and somehow unbearably sad.

"I think its a super-cute idea, Hika-chan!" Hunni announced, and bounced his way around the table in order to squirm into a tight embrace between the two boys. "Takashi and I will get streamers and balloons and other fun things to make your party ultra special!"

"Uh. Thanks, Hunni-sempai."

"Yeah, thanks."

Haruhi smiled a little, both at Hunni's boundless enthusiasm, and the faint traces of uncertainty lining the twins' faces at being touched with genuine affection.

"Guess that's settled, then," she said. "I suppose I should go tell Kyoya-sempai."

"Okay, Haru-chan!" Hunni sang out merrily, before roping the rest of the tables' occupants into a discussion about party favors and pin the tail on the donkey.

Haruhi let her heart swell a little as she looked at them, such familiar heads bent together once again when a part of her had feared they never would be. And then she turned towards the stairs and rolled up her metaphorical sleeves.

One dark head was missing from this discussion. There was no cool stream of logic and logistics and rationale to ease the jagged spikes of excitement that the twins, and Hunni, seemed to emit simply by being. Mori was too quiet to calm the crazy camp on his own.

She and Kyoya-sempai were long overdue for a little chat.

She climbed the stairs like a warrior walking toward battle. She knocked on the door with the grim determination of a soldier sent to the front lines.

Her brown eyes were as hard as steel when Kyoya-sempai answered her summons.

"We need to talk," she said. "Now."

"Later," Kyoya corrected. "I'm busy."

"Come on, Kyoya-sempai," she said, all cool logic and calm tones. Shouting worked with Tamaki and the twins, but Kyoya listened to nothing that wasn't presented to him in a rational manner. "We've been putting this off for a while. You can't avoid this conversation forever."

Kyoya reclined against the door frame, looking for all the world like disagreements completely relaxed him.

"On the contrary, Haruhi," he countered. "I haven't been avoiding anything. I fail to comprehend the necessity of this conversation that you are so insistent upon us having."

Oh, and he was whipping out the big words. Which Haruhi took to mean he was just drawing out what he wasn't actually saying at all.

"Hikaru and Kaoru are canceling their big birthday party back home," Haruhi said. "They're having it here instead, with just us. I'd rather have this resolved before then."

Kyoya said nothing. Just raised one eyebrow, as if to ask how his information applied to him exactly.

"Kyoya-sempai, I'm serious. They're making a big sacrifice for us. We owe it to them to at least make it a happy experience."

Still, nothing. Just the majestic rise of Kyoya's other eyebrow. And the tiniest hint of smug, resting somewhere around his upper lip, that finally tripped Haruhi's inner alarm trigger.

Without asking permission, she pressed one hand over his shoulder, against the mostly closed door, and gave it a nudge.

There was a suitcase sitting on Kyoya's impeccably made bed. It was neatly packed and waiting to be shut.

"What are you doing?" Haruhi demanded, somewhat absently, because her mind was blanking under a sudden stream of _no, no, so much worse than I thought, don't know if I can fix this_.

"I believe the evidence is self-explanatory, Haruhi."

"You're leaving. You're _leaving_." The first utterance was a realization; the second an accusal. "Kyoya-sempai, _why_?"

He gave a little shrug against the door frame. Haruhi wanted to hit him for it.

"My presence here is no longer required," he explained. "I fulfilled my obligation as a club member by alerting everyone to the situation and then making sure they arrived in a timely manner. Any additional assistance on my part would be...unnecessary."

Bastard. Cold, cruel, calculating _bastard_.

The sound of happy laughter drifted up the stairs, and soft piano music strained from the lower level, and he was really going to _leave them like this_, when they needed him most, when _Tamaki _needed Kyoya to hold him together.

And Haruhi was done.

She stomped out of the room, snagging Kyoya's wrist in her hand on the way. She wasn't strong, the boys would be the first ones to expound upon her frailness, but the element of surprise and sheer desperation helped her tow Kyoya out into the hallway and towards the stairs.

"Haruhi, I must insist that you release-"

"Be quiet, Kyoya-sempai," she snapped, and continued to tug.

Fear was churning in her gut, fear and anger, painting her insides sickly yellow and furious red. If Kyoya-sempai left, if she let him leave, it would never be fixed, their friendship could never be salvaged.

They would never again be able to stand in a room and recognize each other as Host Club. Friend. _Family_.

Kyoya was too dignified to jerk away. He'd chosen to present himself with indifference, and now he was stuck behind his own mask. However, he did dig his heels in very subtly when the shimmering sound of piano music increased in volume.

Haruhi merely clamped down on his wrist all the harder, and slapped the door with the flat of her hand, exposing Tamaki and his piano to Kyoya-sempai's eyes.

"He looks sad," Haruhi observed calmly, quietly. The eye of the storm, a peaceful moment of observation. She could already feel the winds of rage whipping as the other side of the tempest approached. "Because you haven't been fixing him."

Kyoya stumbled. Just a little, and hardly noticeable, but his eyes widened the barest bit behind his glasses, and his wrist went slack in Haruhi's grip.

He had a weakness, she knew, for Tamaki's beautiful music. And right now, he looked like heartbreak, his violet eyes swirling with sorrow even as his fingers coaxed sweet melodies from the keys.

But then that music (Tamaki's aches, expressed through song) came to a stop as Tamaki glanced up and saw his two most important people standing in the doorway.

The momentary spell was broken when the last shimmering, silver bright note trembled on the air and disappeared. Kyoya went rigid once again.

"Haruhi," Tamaki said, voice soft and sluggishly confused, as if their presence had pulled him from some other world. "Mon ami. What-"

Haruhi took a quick step to the side. Placing her hands on the small of Kyoya's back, she shoved the older boy into the room.

"He was leaving," she said. "He had his suitcase on the bed."

Tamaki's expression crumbled. Sorrow, and anguish, and _pain_ filled his eyes and destroyed his tentative smile. Haruhi shut her eyes against it, couldn't even look at it, the hurt cramped her gut so deep.

"Why?" he whispered.

Kyoya's words were as logical as ever, but the smooth tone of his voice was gone, scraped raw by something that told Haruhi he wasn't immune.

"I see no reason to stay. There is little I can do for your mother; there is _nothing_ I can accomplish while sequestered in the grasslands of France."

_You won't do it, Kyoya-sempai. I know. Because...there's nothing to be gained from it._

Haruhi opened her eyes to banish the memory like a bad dream, and saw Tamaki easing across the room, his hands outstretched.

"Mon ami. _Kyoya_. Please. _I need_-"

The door burst open once again. The other four stood in the doorway, their expressions uncharacteristically serious.

Kyoya bristled, very subtly, but Haruhi nodded her satisfaction. This was right. They were a part of this.

Secrets never stayed between family, after all.

"Haruhi," Hikaru said, his eyes jumping uncertainly from Tamaki's ravaged face to Kyoya's stick straight spine to Haruhi's serious set mouth. "What's going on?"

"Tamaki transferred schools. He attends the same University as me, now."

Mori cocked an eyebrow. Hikaru's forehead wrinkled in confusion.

But Hunni was nodding. And the sudden understanding, complete understanding in Kaoru's eyes was brilliant and blindingly bright.

"He filed the paperwork right after Christmas break. I told him not to come, that I didn't need him there. But he came anyway."

"This has no relevance," Kyoya said, and he spoke so stiffly that all inflection had been erased from his voice.

"It has every relevance," Haruhi corrected, in a voice as flat as his. "Kyoya-sempai, you only started avoiding us after Tamaki left."

Tamaki made a small, startled sound and stopped his forward motion.

"Mon ami, is that-"

"The correlation you're struggling to draw is inaccurate," Kyoya interrupted, and he sounded like ice, cold and hard. "I have goals. I have aspirations. I have work to do. I am _busy_. Do you really think that I have the time or the energy to pine away just because one blonde moron isn't there to distract me anymore?"

His words were so scathing, Tamaki actually stumbled back a step, his eyes wide and shocked and wounded. But Haruhi just stared him down, angry and unafraid.

"Yes. Yes, I do."

Silence. Kyoya seemed calm, on the surface. But under the veneer of dignified serenity he projected, there were signs to indicate his emotions. His hands were curled into loose fists, and behind his glasses, his eyes were thunderstorms of feeling.

"You knew this was going to happen. That first day, when I broke the vase, you knew. I heard you, when I came out of the dressing room. 'I may be wrong, but this may be the beginnings of love'. You're so damn smart, Kyoya-sempai, you knew that Tamaki and I were going to end up like this way before anyone else did. So I don't understand. If you knew, if you _saw_, then why are you acting like this?"

Kaoru moved forward, releasing the door frame and walking into the line of fire.

"I know," he said, and Hikaru goggled at his back. "I understand, Kyoya-sempai. It's that feeling, right? Those moments that you have when you step outside yourself and look at everyone around you. And you love them so much, it hurts, and you're so sad, so sad, because you know that it can't stay like it is in that one perfect moment. But you want it to, so you pretend that things won't ever change. That _you _won't change. That the present won't become memories someday, that you can never get back the way it was."

"Like closing your eyes," Mori rumbled, and made everyone jump. "And spinning around. And hoping that things won't look different when you open them."

Silence. And then Hikaru raised a tentative hand.

"I...don't think I get it," he said, and he was probably the only one who really didn't at this point. "Is he mad at the Boss? Kyoya-sempai...he...is he in love with Haruhi? "

The 'too' went unspoken, but it was heard by everyone in the room anyway.

"Not me," Haruhi said quietly, and Kyoya's widened ever so slightly. In anger, or shock, or fear, she wasn't sure. "Not me."

Hikaru's mouth dropped open; he'd always been quick. From the far side of the room, Tamaki choked on a sharp, shocked gasp as comprehension speared his brain like a lightning strike.

"Mon ami," he whispered, and he was moving forward again, eyes lit with confusion, and some sort of wonder. "You...I..."

"Don't," Kyoya said.

But Tamaki ignored his warning, and finally put his hands on his friend's shoulders.

"Kyoya."

Kyoya's teeth gritted and his loose fists clenched tight. Haruhi moved fast; Kyoya had tried to punch his friend before, Tamaki had told her about it with a laugh in his throat.

She reached out and snagged Kyoya's wrists once again, pinning them in place.

"Not like that, Tamaki. Not the way you think." _Although, I'm not exactly sure about that. _"You were Kyoya-sempai's first friend. The only one who cared enough to chase him, and make him accept you. You were his first." Haruhi stared up into gray eyes turbulent with too many emotions to name. "And now I'm in the way. You left him for me, just like he was always afraid you would."

"Mon ami," Tamaki whispered, and pressed his forehead on Kyoya's shoulder.

"Get off."

"Kyoya. Don't go. Please don't go."

"You don't need me," Kyoya hissed, his voice a violent struggle between control and calamity. "You _don't_."

Tamaki shook his head against Kyoya's shirt.

"Always," he insisted. "I always need you."

They were shaking, Haruhi realized. All three of them. Quick and violent shivers.

"Kyoya-sempai," she whispered. "_Please_."

And then the others stepped forward. Surrounded the three of them like a wall of support and strength.

"Kyo-chan," Hunni said, and his smile was steel, bright but completely unbendable. "We're not going to let you leave."

Kyoya stared at him. At Hikaru and Kaoru, ranged together and looking as stubborn and ferocious as a single unstoppable entity. At Mori, who stood between him and the door with his arms folded and a soft kind of sympathy in his eyes that said _I understand, and I hurt for you, I really do, but we're not going to let you go, won't let you hurt yourself by leaving us. _

And Kyoya's eyes finally settled on a single emotion.

Fear.

Because they knew how to save him. By breaking him. And they weren't going to let him leave until he did.

...

_A/N: So. Kyoya. I'm not saying that he's in LOVE with Tamaki. And I'm not saying he isn't, either. There's too many layers to his motives to give them definitive meaning. All that's really clear, and the root of all this, is that Tamaki belongs to Kyoya. But the exact mannre of their bond is by turns both too vague and too full of depth to be defined. So. Yep. Don't hate me!_

_Now that the problem is out in the air, can the Host Club break Kyoya before its too late? Stay tuned to find out. Happy Reading!_


	9. Chapter 9

_A/N: Last chapter here, Folks. A little shorter than the last chapter, but mostly this is just emotional wrap-up, so that's okay. There will be an epilogue, hopefully posted in the next few days, but after that I'll consider the "Remember When" stories officially complete. _

_Yeah. I'm a little emotional about it._

_A million thanks to those of you that have stuck with me this far. I love and appreciate you all dearly, and the support you've given me has meant so much. HUGS AND KISSES FOR YOU ALL!_

_I do not own Ouran High School Host Club; it belongs to Bisco Hatori._**  
**

**Equilibrium Act**

"Kyo-chan. We're not going to let you leave."

Beneath her fingers, Haruhi felt Kyoya's wrists tighten into steel bands of stress. This was panic, as much as Kyoya was able to show. His bones were iron bars underneath Haruhi's hands; every inch of him solid in denial of this.

"You cannot keep me here," Kyoya returned, and his voice was rough, like someone had run it over a cheese grater. "You have no reason to do so."

Hunni laughed, like Kyoya had just told him the silliest joke he'd ever heard. Like they were all sitting down to cake and tea, rather than standing knee-deep in confrontation.

"Of course we have a reason, Kyo-chan," Hunni said merrily, and his smile was an assassin's blade on a boy's face. "We're your friends."

"That was your idiotic idealism. Never mine. I didn't take part in the Host Club to make friends. You were all means to an end for me, a way for me to prove my skills to my father. I _used you_."

"Aw." There was a laugh in Hunni's voice still, bright and happy, but his eyes were burning, and Haruhi was a little afraid. It was a rare, and sort of horrible thing, to see him like this. "That's kind of mean, Kyo-chan. But you can't use your friends, you know. Not really. We knew what you needed us for, and we did it, so to you it might have seemed like using, but it's what friends are supposed to do anyway. Isn't that nice, Kyo-chan? Isn't that better, to just have super-duper good friends?"

"You are _ridiculous_." Kyoya's voice came out as acid, meant to scald everyone in the room. "All of you. The Host Club was a game. A glorified chessboard that we all played on. And it was in _high school_. We were never meant to last beyond that, you morons. So why won't you leave me to my work in peace?"

Haruhi won't look at Tamaki, even though he's standing so close, pressed against Kyoya's side. She won't, because she's afraid that the hurt she knows is on his face will cripple her. He's important, and he was already hurting before this, and Haruhi is terrified that she'll lash out at Kyoya for his sake. And she can't, because then they'll lose him forever.

So she fixed her eyes on the rigid line of Kyoya's jaw, and bled for Tamaki silently instead.

"You don't believe that, Mon Ami," he said softly, and she was absolutely right. The quiet agony in his voice alone twisted her stomach into terrible knots, and brought hot, hateful words to her throat that took effort to swallow back. "If you did, you wouldn't have worked so hard to bring us all together like this. I know you, Kyoya. You don't put effort into things that you consider unworthy of your attention." Haruhi could hear the smile in his voice, but it wasn't okay, because it was a sharp and brittle thing. "And that means that you wouldn't be fighting us so hard if we meant nothing, Mon Ami."

He was right. Tamaki was _always_ right when it came to Kyoya. That was why they worked.

"I screwed everything up," Haruhi murmured into the angry silence, and every pair of eyes immediately swung her way. Even Kyoya's furious ice-storm gaze.

"Haruhi, what-"

"Haru-chan, you didn't-"

"Shut up," Haruhi offered, calmly cutting off Hunni and the twins mid-protest. "Seriously, guys. Enough with the protecting, you're making me crazy. I wasn't actually looking for reassurance. I'm just breaking down the facts."

"Like a good lawyer," Mori murmured, and if she wasn't so afraid to take her eyes off of Kyoya, Haruhi would have smiled at him for it.

"Right. And it's true, what I said; I screwed everything up." No one spoke this time. They were all waiting to see where she would take this, Kyoya included, even though she could see that he already understood her point. "You were pairs before I found you. The perfect balance; each of you had someone that you needed the most, and it was universally understood within the group. Hikaru and Kaoru had each other, Mori-sempai had Hunni-sempai to protect, and Kyoya-sempai had Tamaki there to balance him. But then I came, and I _screwed everything up_." Brown eyes locked with brittle gray, and Haruhi realized that what she would have died before saying only a few months ago came easily now in the face of this. "Because I needed you, all of you, but you and Tamaki the most, Kyoya-sempai. You _all_ balanced me, but you and Tamaki made me..." She trailed off, struggling, and desperately prayed that her words wouldn't fail her, not now. "Finished. Done."

"Whole," Tamaki provided quietly, and Haruhi nodded.

"Yes. Whole. Because you're the logic, Kyoya-sempai, and I'm the staid, the tradition. And Tamaki balances us both because he thinks with his emotions, and uses them to understand us. And if it would have just been that, just the three of us turning a pair into a group of three, then it would have been fine and we wouldn't be having this conversation now. But we're not _equal_, because now Tamaki and I...and everything's shifted and you're the one that got left alone and, Kyoya-sempai, I am so _sorry_."

He was going to shove away, pry his wrists from her fingers. Haruhi could see it. It was too raw, and too real, and like she'd just said, this was Tamaki's realm. Neither of them were at ease in it. But she would share everything to keep him, and to hell with her own comfort.

So she locked her hands even tighter, enough to worry that there might actually be bruises on his arms come morning. She knew that Tamaki was doing the same, pinning himself more securely to his side.

A sudden laugh rippled through the room, freezing the trio mid-struggle. The sound might have stood out, a highly inappropriate response to the situation, except that there was absolutely no humor and more than a little hurt in it, and so it actually fit their symphony perfectly.

"Oh man. I'm so stupid."

Hikaru.

There were knives in his eyes. Sharp and sticky with the blood of slaughtered feelings. And yet, still so soft, somehow, and sorry.

"I mean, I thought I had this sulking thing down," he said, and his smile big and bold and empty. "Painted myself as the biggest wronged party in the history of ever, you know? Because Haruhi didn't love me, and I thought that I was the only who really loved her, and so I thought the sulking was totally my right. But I'm just an idiot, because it wasn't my right at all."

"Hikaru," Kaoru whispered, the worry in his eyes was almost unbearable.

"Kyoya-sempai, it belongs to you." Hikaru tangled his hand in his twin's reassuringly, but kept those blade sharp eyes on Kyoya. "Because I was in love with Haruhi. But you were in love with both of them, and they hurt you _so much worse_."

"You're all...so stupid. I'm not in love with anyone. And I am not _hurt_," Kyoya shot back. "I'm _fine_. Just because I want to leave, just because I don't share the same idiotic sentiment..."

"You're bleeding out right in front of us," Hikaru corrected sadly. "Trust me. I know what it looks like."

Kyoya's eyes were wide, and wild, behind his glasses. His control, his constant need to wield it, was arguably the most important factor of his existence. And they were taking it from him. Breaking it from his hands, because Hunni was right. This was what friends _did_, and they were his, whether he wanted them or not, and he wasn't in control here.

But she was worried, because she didn't know how to end this, didn't know what they needed from Kyoya in order to move on. She was running right now on the instinct that if Kyoya left, he'd be gone from good, but beyond that, she had no idea how to reach absolution.

"The thing is, Kyoya-sempai," Kaoru said, picking up his brother's thread. "Is that I think we were meant to last beyond high school. I mean. We picked each other for a reason, right? Like Haruhi said. We fit. Friendships like ours aren't made that often, because we all needed each other for something, and we still do. So we can never really let each other go, you see?"

"You can leave," Haruhi offered softly. She met Tamaki's eyes for the first time in a long while, and smiled a bit when she realized that there was no panic in that lavender gaze, or fear, and confusion at her words. Only trust. "We can't really stop you, we know that. But Kyoya-sempai, we're not going to leave you alone. Not ever again."

"You can run from us, Mon Ami," Tamaki added gently. "But we will chase you. And eventually, we will catch you again."

"_Idiots_," Kyoya hissed, and Haruhi could see that he knows he is losing. She can tell, because of the panic in his eyes, and the scream of frustration and fear locked behind his clenched teeth. "I don't...I don't _want you to_..."

He was shaking. The iron bars under Haruhi's hands, his rigid wrists, were trembling. And they were gentle now, because they knew they would win, even if he walked out like he wanted.

She still didn't know how to get to absolution, but they were closer to it now.

"Children."

The voice from the door seemed to shatter some sort of spell, to intrude upon the world they'd locked themselves in. Everyone swayed upon hearing it, as if it had upset some sort of equilibrium.

Anne-Sophie stood in the entryway to the music room, pale and pinched and holding herself up on the door frame. But the fire of determination in her purple eyes was enough to warm the entire house.

"Mother." Haruhi could see the struggle form on Tamaki's face. He wanted to go to her, to help her stand and maybe escort her back to bed. But he was afraid to let go of Kyoya. "You shouldn't be out of bed. Let me-"

Anne-Sophie shook her head. She wasn't looking at Tamaki, Haruhi realized, and her stomach gave a sharp, unpleasant jump. Those tiger bright purple eyes were locked on a different face.

"You love my son," she said quietly, and Kyoya went still.

"I am _not_ in _love_ with Tamaki," he spat, and Haruhi knew that they'd pushed him beyond his normal boundaries, because she'd _never_ heard him speak to an adult like that before.

"I didn't say you were, Ma Cherie," Anne-Sophie corrected gently. "Love and being in love are very different feelings. Often confused, but not the same."

"I don't understand."

"That's all right," Anne-Sophie said, and she was smiling now, just a little. "You're very young yet. Love is something for the young to experience, and the old to write about, so it's all right that you don't understand."

She shivered a little, wrapped her shawl impatiently around her shoulders.

"All that you have to know now, Kyoya, is that having people who are willing to fight for you is precious, and also imperfect. They're going to make mistakes, and push you away, and hurt you more often than not, because they're close enough to do so. You have to understand that that is what makes them so important, and why you must fight even harder to stay together."

"That makes no sense," Kyoya breathed, and the frustration in his eyes was hot enough to burn. "Why would I want to keep the people who can hurt me? Why would I invite that _weakness_?"

Anne-Sophie's smile was still warm, and sad.

"Because you know, better than anyone I think, how lonely the alternative is."

Kyoya started to laugh. He ducked his shoulders and his his eyes and laughed like the world was ending.

At his side, Tamaki's eyes widened. He'd heard that laugh before, only once, when Kyoya's fist had been cocked and ready to rip his face to shreds.

"_Lonely_," Kyoya repeated, like it was the funniest word ever invented. "Yes, lonely. And what's wrong with lonely? Lonely is fine. Lonely is _productive_. I thank you for your input, Ms. Grantaine, but you see, lonely is what I prefer. It keeps me on schedule, and distraction free, and it...it saves me from situations like this...and it will never...never..."

"You have to forgive them, Ma Cherie."

Stunned, Haruhi could only blink in Anne-Sophie's direction. That was exactly it, exactly what they needed.

Loneliness could never _leave him_; that was what Kyoya had been struggling to say.

The road to absolution began with Kyoya's forgiveness.

Kyoya was surprised as well. Haruhi can feel it in the way his already rigid body snapped even tighter, and the way his eyes went wide and blank behind his glasses.

"They hurt you," Anne-Sophie continued. "Terribly, Ma Cherie, and that is inexcusable. But they are here now, and they are fighting for you, and they are not perfect, and you must forgive them anyway."

That was love, Haruhi realized. Forgiving and trusting and likely getting hurt again but doing it regardless because they were imperfect, but _worth_ fighting for.

Tamaki had known that from the beginning. Hunni, Mori, Kaoru; they were all aware of the definition. They were the _Kings_ of loving and letting go and holding on when you had to.

Only she, Hikaru, and Kyoya hadn't understood.

But she did now, and she wasn't going to screw it up again now that she knew what it meant.

She let go of Kyoya's wrists and swatted them aside, confusing him enough that she had her arms already wrapped around him before he'd even registered her attempt to hug.

"Kyoya-sempai," she whispered into his chest. She could feel his heart beating against her cheek, fast and loud. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"Haruhi," he said, and his voice was hoarse. Wrecked.

"It's okay," she said, fiercely. "It's okay to need people. Please."

There was a pause, that terrified Haruhi more than any of his angry words ever had. Then she felt two sets of arms wrap around her shoulders. Tamaki's arms, over Kyoya's, because he wouldn't move them on his own, even if he'd wanted to. He needed Tamaki there to help him forgive.

Sighing, Haruhi closed her eyes and smiled because this was how they worked. This was _why_ they worked.

Tamaki holding the both of them, because really, they were too stupid to do it on their own.

Kyoya had never actually admitted anything out loud. And he hadn't _said_ that he'd forgiven them, either.

But that made sense, because he was Kyoya, and so it was okay.

…...

The house was quiet in the hours after the confrontation in the music room. Everyone had retreated to their respective corners to think and absorb and rub their skin smooth again after the spillage of so many abrasive emotions. Hunni and Mori had disappeared to a nearby town, to shop for streamers and balloons and other things to make a great birthday party.

Hikaru and Kaoru had walked out into the open fields, and Kaoru's fingers had been tight on Hikaru's as he spoke soft, urgent words to his twin. They'd returned with quiet eyes and peaceful smiles.

Haruhi had been spotted on the back porch, a cell phone in her hand and a smile on her face that she wore only when talking to her father.

Tamaki had helped his mother back to bed, and had been stopped from settling her blankets by soft hands on her face.

"My sweet boy," Anne-Sophie had murmured. "You love so deeply, and so much. A trait passed down from me, I'm afraid."

Tamaki had cupped a hand over hers.

"I'm proud to have it, Mother."

Anne-Sophie had smiled.

"I know, Darling. And I'm glad to have given it to you. But you have other people to share it with; you mustn't worry so much for me."

And Tamaki had nodded, even as his eyes filled with tears, and gone back to arranging his mother's blankets.

Kyoya had disappeared into his room as soon as Haruhi and Tamaki let him go. No one had seen him since.

Now it was the next day, and the sun was just starting to set over the rolling fields and overflowing gardens. Colorful streamers had been hung in the dining room, a special cake was warming in the oven, and the Host Club was getting ready for the party. The twins had announced that they'd procured special outfits for everyone to wear, and the others had returned to their rooms to don them.

Except for Tamaki, who found himself occupied in Kyoya's room instead.

He was sitting on the bed, hands folded in his lap, looking at his friend, who was propped against the window and staring out at the setting sun.

"You're an idiot," Kyoya offered, after a long silence.

"I know," Tamaki said, and Kyoya's lips quirked, even though he never looked away from the window panes.

"I never meant...I never intended..." Tamaki continued, after another silence. "Mon Ami, you know I would never leave you. Right?"

From somewhere inside the house, a door crashed open, and Haruhi's enraged voice roared; "HIKARU! KAORU! I already told you that I am NOT WEARING THIS!"

"Aw, but Haruhi. It's our _birthday_."

Kyoya sighed.

"I know that. Moron."

Tamaki's hands curled into fists on his thighs.

"I am in love with Haruhi," he said softly. "And that's not going to change. But Kyoya." He looked up, and his violet eyes were sincere. "I need you as well. Just as much."

"NO," Haruhi shouted from the hallway. "Just...NO. I don't even understand how you got this here! WE'RE IN THE GRASSLANDS ON FRANCE. YOU JUST DECIDED TO HAVE YOUR PARTY HERE YESTERDAY."

"Of course you do," Kyoya agreed calmly. "You'd be dead by now if not for me."

"True." Tamaki's smile stretched. Still not admitting anything, even when it was just the two of them. How very typical of his friend. "Or destitute, at the very least."

"Correct." Kyoya finally turned from the window, and shoved his glasses up his nose. "We should get dressed. The twins will pout if we're late to their party."

And now Tamaki's smile widened into a full-blown grin. Because the costume was on Kyoya's bed, and his suitcase was back in his closet.

"Yes, of course," he said. And then he laughed and launched himself at Kyoya with a joyous cry that rivaled the ones coming from the hallway. "WE MUSTN'T DISAPPOINT THE CHILDREN! MOMMY IS SO KIND TO KEEP DADDY ON SCHEDULE!"

Kyoya stepped serenely to the side, so that Tamaki hit the wall instead of him. But he was smiling now, an actual smile.

"Really. Such a moron," he said, but it was just the two of them, so he relented enough to let Tamaki hear the fondness in his voice. Just this once.

…...

It wasn't perfect.

Standing in the corner, arms crossed over her ridiculous costume, Haruhi mentally tallied the score.

The twins were still idiots. They'd chosen to continue on with the mythical creatures theme for their party that they'd originally chosen, and somehow managed to get the costumes they'd had made from Japan to France in the space of a day.

Haruhi tried not to think about it. It gave her a headache.

So there she was, standing and observing, dressed like fairy in wispy, glittery strapless thing that the twins dared to call a dress, with sparkly wings strapped to her back and ribbon-bedecked shoes on her feet that were nothing short of impractical.

It wasn't perfect.

Mori and Hunni seemed all right. They were bouncing (well, Hunni was) around the kitchen, putting the final touches on dinner. Hunni seemed perfectly content in his elf costume, complete with pointy hat and curly-toed shoes. And if Mori had any objections to his werewolf costume, which came with a top too shredded to be a shirt and pants that seemed suspiciously tight-fitting for the creature they were trying to display, they weren't showing on his face.

Hikaru and Kaoru required a second, more lingering look. They were laughing, and talking, and obviously right at home in their imp costumes, complete with devil horns and curled tails and pants even tighter than Mori's. But Hikaru's smile was still a little sad, and Kaoru's eyes were always following his older brother.

Tamaki and Kyoya were...awkward. There was no other word for it really. They were standing close together, and they were wearing their costumes (Kyoya had been allowed to resurrect the vampire cosplay, since it suited him so well, and Tamaki was decked out in tight red pants and a black shirt and a dazzling rainbow of red and orange and yellow face-paint that closely resembled scales...Haruhi was pretty sure he was supposed to be a dragon). But Kyoya's shoulders were stiff and his eyes wary. The softness in Tamaki's eyes indicated that he both noticed and understood. But he didn't stop smiling, and he didn't leave Kyoya's side.

So, it wasn't perfect.

But they would be okay.

"Oh dear, I hope I'm not late."

Haruhi hurried forward as Anne-Sophie came carefully down the stairs, because she didn't want Tamaki to have to leave Kyoya. She held out a steadying hand and helped Anne-Sophie reach the landing.

"Of course not, Anne-Sophie," she said. "You look beautiful."

It was true. Somehow, in addition to magically procuring the costumes already made for their party, the twins had managed to craft another costume for Anne-Sophie. Her dress was a gauzy column of sea-green material, and her golden hair tumbled loose around her shoulders.

"A mermaid, I think" Anne-Sophie said with an embarrassed laugh.

"Of course!" the twins chorused, stepping forward. "And the prettiest one we've ever seen."

Anne-Sophie looked terribly amused.

"Oh, my. Are you intending to woo me with your Hosting skills? Careful, boys. Remember that I'm from France."

Across the room, Tamaki laughed, bright and loud.

They stumbled over moments throughout the night. Hikaru and Kaoru fumbled their 'thank you' upon accepting Kyoya's gift. At some point, Hunni and Kyoya disappeared, and were later spotted having what looked like a strangely serious conversation in the kitchen. Tamaki pressed a gentle kiss to Haruhi's hand while the cake was being cut, and Kyoya's eyes had darted away, like he wasn't ready to trust completely, not quite so soon.

But they had time. And love was about fighting toward better, not just achieving stasis. She knew that now.

Haruhi smiled at her boys, all of them together, and thought that perfection was boring anyway.

...

_A/N: Only the epilogue to go, Folks, and then we're done. Everything's settling, and home is in sight. Stay tuned. Happy Reading!_


	10. Chapter 10

_A/N: So, here it is. The very last chapter of the "Remember When" stories. I'd like to take a moment, again, to thank all of you that have stuck with me through what started as an idea, and ended up as a project. You've all been so wonderful, and amazingly supportive, and I truly treasure every review, word of praise, and silent favorite/alert that this story has received. You're all amazingly kind, and I appreciate everything you've done. As of right now, I have no immediate plans to continue posting in the Ouran fandom. I'll never leave it, because I love it so, but no story ideas are present at the moment. I'll be posting other works, however, so if you feel so inclined, please wander on over and check them out! Thank you all, again, for the love and support. I appreciate you more than you know!_

_This epilogue takes place four months after the last chapter, which puts about fourteen months before the epilogue at the end of the original "Remember When".  
_

_I do not own Ouran High School Host Club; it belongs to Bisco Hatori._**  
**

**Stasis**

_Four Months Later_

"Why is he late? Haruhi! He's late!"

"Studying."

"How can you possibly have homework already? It's the first day of classes!"

"Because some of us are real grown-ups."

"SO CRUEL!"

"Tamaki. The librarian will throw you out. Bodily. I've seen it done before. And I'll pretend not to know you when she does."

"Well then. I love you too, Ma Belle."

At the scarred wooden table in the dusty back corner of the library's law section, Haruhi still didn't glance up from the thick tome she was studying. However, her cheeks did blush the barest pink, and a tiny smile curved her lips.

"I'm just so worried!" Tamaki continued, although he made sure to carefully pitch his concern at a semi-whisper instead of a shriek. "I haven't heard from him all day, and he won't answer my calls, and I just want to know how he's settling in and-"

From above, a curled fist bopped down on top of Tamaki's gilded hair, surprising him into silence.

"Calm down, Moron. I'm right here."

"MOMMY DEAR!"

"Shut up," Kyoya said pleasantly, as he slid into the available seat. "Your voice is far too vibrant for such a quiet place."

"Awww. Did you hear that, Haruhi? Kyoya called me vibrant!"

"Studying," Haruhi repeated, but she sighed and closed her book because Kyoya was here now, and so it would require both of them to keep Tamaki quiet. "You're late, Kyoya-sempai."

"Apologies. I was on the phone with my Father."

"Mm," Haruhi said, popping her chin on her palm. "I think he might be empty-nesting. He called me too, yesterday morning."

Tamaki squawked.

"Haruhi, it's _strange_," he insisted. "Why does Ootori-san keep _calling you_?"

Haruhi shrugged, supremely unconcerned by her boyfriend's irritation.

"He likes me," she explained. "I think because I scolded him that one time after he slapped Kyoya-sempai, which is a little weird."

"That's why I had Haruhi call him, to propose the transfer," Kyoya informed his friend absently, but he was smirking. "He appears to be quite taken with her."

Tamaki hissed in confusion and alarm.

"He's nice enough," Haruhi continued. "Although, I think he might still be upset that Tamaki got to me first. He keeps asking me questions about Japan's union laws; potentially he's trying to find a way for me to marry both of you, and keep it legal."

"Charming," Kyoya offered dryly, as Tamaki rocketed out of his chair.

"BETRAYAL!"

"Yeah," Haruhi agreed, after giving her boyfriend a heroically bland expression. "I tried to explain to him what a bad idea that would be. I mean, we might be okay, but you'd probably kill Tamaki within a week. And then his dad would sue, and Anne-Sophie would be sad."

"Well, we can't have that," Kyoya said. "Perhaps you should offer to name your first born after him instead, Haruhi. He might be appeased."

"Your families are insane."

"Your father is a transvestite."

"My family is not insane," Tamaki argued over Haruhi's snort of laughter. He dropped back into his chair, an offended pout creasing his lips. "But I'm telling my mother you said so, Haruhi."

"Anne-Sophie is French, Tamaki," Haruhi pointed out. "She'll think it's funny."

Tamaki stuck his tongue out at her, but his eyes were bright with laughter.

"She's settling in to her new establishment?" Kyoya asked. "Your mother?"

"Well enough, I suppose," Tamaki answered. "She's anxious to return to work, but the Doctor is advising another week of rest, just to be safe."

Haruhi winced.

"She's arguing again, isn't she? I think the doctors liked her better when she was actually ill, and all docile with it."

"My mother has a beautiful spirit and a strong sense of will," Tamaki proclaimed, beaming with pride, and Haruhi rolled her eyes.

"Yes, well, I'll call her later," Kyoya said. "See if I can't convince her to give the medical staff an easier time."

"Please do," Haruhi said, relief evident in her voice. "You handle her so much better than me."

Kyoya arched an eyebrow at Tamaki, who was busy crafting a verbal list that extolled his mother's virtues.

"I've had more practice," he said, and he only sounded a little bit pained.

"You're better at manipulating," Haruhi corrected, and Kyoya smirked.

"Perhaps."

A sudden chime sounded from Tamaki's pocket, cutting him off mid-rapturous proclamation.

"An email from Hikaru and Kaoru," he explained, after pulling his phone from his pocket. "They'll be traveling our way later this month, and ask that we set aside the last weekend in September for a visit."

"Why are they only emailing you, and not all of us?" Kyoya asked, pulling out his own phone to check. "It's not very intelligent. I mean, aren't they aware that messages flutter out of your hole-riddled brain approximately five minutes after you receive them?"

Tamaki heaved a forlorn wail full of sorrow, and Haruhi casually smacked his face with her book to shut him up.

"Hikaru's still a little nervous about texting me, I think," she said, quietly now to show she was serious. "He's getting better. I just think he's a little unsure of his welcome, after ignoring me for months."

For a moment, brown eyes met gray and purple in quiet communication and solidarity.

"It will be fine," Kyoya said, after the quiet moment had passed, and Haruhi smiled, because it _meant_ something that it was Kyoya who said it.

"Yeah," Tamaki agreed, and he was smiling too. "You call yell at him when he gets here, Haruhi."

"Sure," she said, and then Kyoya's phone let out a chime of its own.

"Seriously guys," Haruhi complained, as Kyoya opened his message and ignored her completely. "Set your phones to silent. I actually _use_ this library."

"I like the sound it makes!" Tamaki said, cradling his phone gleefully, and Haruhi planted her face on the table.

"An email from Hunni-sempai," Kyoya said, and his voice was bland enough to have Haruhi raising her head cautiously from the table. "Informing me that of course he can visit the last weekend in September, and that he's 'super excited' about my house-warming party." Cool gray eyes blinked in placid interest. "He'd like to know what kind of present I'd prefer."

Across the table, Tamaki froze like a deer caught in floodlights.

"Tamaki," Kyoya said pleasantly, and a small, benevolent smile curved his lips.

"Oh, he's totally going to kill you," Haruhi muttered, and hid her face again.

"Ah. Ahahaha. Well." Tamaki tried for a smile of his own. He meant it to be winsome and engaging, and would never admit that it actually came across as terrified. "It was supposed to be a secret?"

"Indeed." Very calmly, Kyoya set his phone on the table top and folded his hands. "I believe you and I need to have a discussion. About meddling. And why I'm the one who makes the plans, instead of you."

"Haruhi, _help me_," Tamaki hissed, quailing in the face of Kyoya's politely calm killing intent.

"You're such an idiot."

"YOU ARE A FAITHLESS GIRLFRIEND!" Tamaki bellowed, and then vanished out of his chair like magic.

"Do excuse me, Haruhi," Kyoya said serenely, climbing to his feet.

"Of course, Kyoya-sempai," Haruhi sighed. "Don't break anything that your medical training can't fix later, okay?"

"Only his head," Kyoya assured her as he strolled away from the table. It wasn't like he had to run; Tamaki flailed when being pursued, and so would trip himself up eventually. "No danger there. He certainly never uses it."

Haruhi sighed again, ignored the startled shriek from two rows over, and flipped open her phone when it vibrated in her hand.

_Crap_, Kaoru had texted. _Hikaru forgot to tell Hunni-sempai that Kyoya-sempai's house-warming party is a surprise. Bad?_

_ Kyoya's only killing Tamaki a little bit_, Haruhi answered.

_ Oh, that's okay then. How's it going over there? Is it weird having both of them at the University?_

The scary librarian was on them now, Haruhi could hear her, screeching about respecting the sanctity of a study place, and couldn't they see the reminders she'd posted about keeping quiet? Tamaki was wailing, and possibly using her body as a shield. Kyoya was speaking, low and reasonable, and in a minute, Tamaki would catch on and crank up the charm, until the woman was a puddle in their hands.

Their teamwork was ridiculous that way.

_No_, she texted back. _Because Kyoya-sempai's already happy here. _

_ Not awkward?_

_Nope. Just really, really normal._

Haruhi hit send, and then tucked her phone away. She rose from the table, and went to rescue the librarian (who had gone absolutely silent once Tamaki had started speaking in his Host Club voice) from her boys, before she offered to have their babies or something.

...

_A/N: Nothing more to stay tuned for. But, as always, I wish you Happy Reading!_


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